


Laurel of the Last Longbottoms

by AmeliaIsmills



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Core Magic, Dark Harry Potter, F/F, F/M, Ginny Weasley Bashing, Grey Harry Potter, Hermione Granger Bashing, M/M, Minor Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood, Pagan Festivals, Past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley Bashing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:21:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27998934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmeliaIsmills/pseuds/AmeliaIsmills
Summary: The world is lost. Harry Potter destroyed Lord Voldemort, but failed to stop the statute of secrecy from falling three decades later. Muggle’s brought forth a tidal wave of destruction. Fear prevailed all reactions and less than a century later magical society crumbled to nothing more than a memory. In desperation, the last of the magical people use a ritual to ask the Goddess of Magic to help.They are surprised to find their plea answered, but the answer Hecate offers is not the damnation and hellfire they expected. Hecate offers to reset the clock, but only to when the problem could have been solved before it started.She would take their future knowledge and impart it upon two who could change the tide.Frank and Alice Longbottom awake to a new future. Their goal would be to save Harry Potter from the path Dumbledore had set him upon that led to their destruction, return Voldemort’s sanity, open the path for her to walk among her children again, influence the wizarding world at large to accept that they must remove themselves completely from muggles, and save their world.Alice just wished she could have a cup of tea and see her son, before Frank started yelling.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, Daphne Greengrass/Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Sirius Black/Amelia Bones
Comments: 41
Kudos: 241





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a labor of love and outside the range of what I normally write. I hope if anyone is interested they enjoy this little piece. 
> 
> Just FYI, the Tom/Harry is well into the future when they are of an age where it is appropriate. 
> 
> I'd love to hear comments, but please ask for no concrit.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183137222@N05/50703907702/in/dateposted-public/)

_ Prologue  _

_ Hecate Wept  _

**_October 31st, 1981_ ** __

Alice trembled as Dumbledore shared the news. She felt Frank’s hand at the small of her back, rubbing small circles, in an effort to comfort her. 

“Lily...James…,” she wept. 

Her husband had more to say, “Albus...I cannot believe Sirius would...no, there has to be a mistake. Sirius Black would cut off his own arm and rip his magic from his very soul before causing harm to James, Lily, or Harry.” 

Alice watched through her fingers as she dabbed away her tears as Dumbledore shook his head. 

“I’m sorry, my dear boy, but Peter Pettigrew is dead. Killed by Sirius after confronting him in front of muggles. He confessed in the streets when the auror’s arrived. Poor Harry has no one left in the magical world,” the old man tutted. 

Alice narrowed her eyes as she realized what the old wizard was saying. She straightened her back and moved slightly so her husband would back up. 

“Harry is not alone. He has Remus and he has us. I believe Lily and James had a custody line in their will. I do not know if the ministry will approve Remus, but surely they cannot disapprove of Frank and I. He’ll grow up with Neville...as brothers. The Longbottom’s have been allied with the Potter’s for centuries,” Alice said, knowing her voice was cold. 

The world might be enamoured with Albus Dumbledore, but the Fontescue’s had long memories and a wide range of contacts all over the wizarding world. She was probably one of the few in her generation who knew of Albus Dumbledore’s past history with Gellert Grindelwald. Her great-grandmother Adelais Fontescue had written a very long entry on the scandalous debacle in her diary. 

They had also followed his political history very carefully. While he advertised himself as solidly on the side of the light, his policies spoke a different story. He positioned himself solidly on muggleborn sympathies and fed their fear of the unknown paganism of the magical society. 

Slowly but surely, ever since the fall of Grindelwald, more and more of their traditions were banned and worship of Lady Hecate was made practically illegal. 

Oh, they didn’t call it against the law, but the rituals that opened the communication for the Lady to bestow her favor among her followers were. 

“Now, Alice, the boy is best left with the last of his blood family,” Alice snapped back to attention at Dumbledore’s response. 

His family? What did Dumbledore mean...surely he did not mean.... 

“Have you left their boy with that wicked sister of Lily’s? That is not acceptable! You will tell us where he is right now, Albus Dumbledore, or you will tell the entirety of the Wizemagot within the night if I have to wake the whole damn lot of them!” Alice knew she was yelling but could not find it in herself to care. 

The damn, fool old man. 

Lily had cried for weeks after that harpy had practically destroyed James and her wedding. Then when Harry had been born and Lily had reached out one more time before going into hiding, the wicked woman had told her she’d been better off cooking her child in an oven. 

Alice would be damned if that child spent one more night with those people. 

Frank had seemed to pick up on her ire and was finally staring at Dumbledore in consideration. 

Alice felt for him, she truly did. 

Albus had often taken certain students under his wing over the years. Frank, James, Lily, and many more. They had all had an almost eerie loyalty to the old man. 

She’d taken to brewing flushing draughts every new moon and spiked Frank’s and her own tea every day. Frank still believed in the man, but luckily no longer behaved as if worshipful to Dumbledore. 

Alice was positive that her saving grace had been the Fortescue history of sending their children to the Russian school of Magic,  Koldovstoretz, for schooling from the age seven to fourteen. She had not entered Hogwarts until she entered into fifth year and had promptly sorted into Slytherin. 

She’d seen Frank for the first time in the school dueling club. He’d sent a housemate of hers sailing through the air with a hurricane elemental curse that she’d never heard of. Then he’d smiled and Alice was done for. 

Her mother always told her that was the Volant side of her blood, her mother’s own family name. Volant’s made their mind up fast and never wavered. Alice decided that day she was going to marry Frank Longbottom and three days after they graduated from Hogwarts she did just that. 

Alice watched as Albus gave them a nod, his eyes sparkling with malcontent. Feeling a foreboding feeling start to overtake her, she instinctively cupped her wand. 

It wasn’t his wand that caused the damage though. The wizard turned as he pulled something from his robes and Alice barely had opened her mouth before smoke was pouring over them. She saw Frank fall before blackness ascended over her. 

She would not know, but this was how the Lestrange’s would find them, not three hours later. Alice Longbottom and Frank Longbottom would not be aware of the world going on around them for another thirteen years. 

Their son would be raised by Frank’s battle-axe mother. Harry Potter would be kept hostage with muggle’s who starved and beat him. Frank and Alice slept, locked away, all hope lost. 

_ And Hecate wept.  _

  
  
  
  
  
  


**_September 1st, 2017_ **

  
  


In the days after the last wizarding war came to an end, Harry James Potter would often find himself losing track of himself. In fact, it was almost like a dream version of himself. Ten years after the war ended, he found himself coming to. His life was almost like one of the fictional portrayals written about him over his younger years. 

He was married to Ginny Weasley, even though he was almost positive he’d outed himself as gay in his fourth year to Hermione and Ron. It was like he’d forgotten a fundamental part of who he was. 

He’d brought his concern to Hermione over their weekly luncheon together. 

He didn’t wake up again from the lie till another five years had passed. 

The confrontation and questioning had not gone well upon returning from sending Albus Severus off to Hogwarts. He’d immediately sent Lily through the floo to Molly, Arthur having been lost the year before. Then he’d braced himself and asked Ginny. 

He knew immediately that she was complicit in whatever was happening. Her eyes darkened and Harry barely had time to move before a stunner was flying towards him. He ducked the stun, but missed the one coming from behind him. 

As he fell he saw Hermione and Ron walking towards. 

This would be the last conscious thought, Harry Potter...the boy who lived, would ever have in his current life. 

_ And Hecate wept.  _

  
  
  


**_October 31, 2028_ **

_ The statute of secrecy falls.  _

  
  
  


**_March 8, 2029_ ** __

_ War is declared on the magical world in a joint effort to crush and destroy the pagan heretics in what would be later termed the Modern Crusades.  _

  
  
  


**_March 19, 2038_ **

_ The wizarding world has been decimated.  _

_ Their population cannot support itself and they will be extinct by the end of the century.  _

_ Four survivors, hiding in the ruins of Hogwarts, come together for one last chance to change the world.  _

  
  
  


**_March 20th, 2038_ **

Albus Severus Malfoy, nee Potter, grinned at his husband, Scorpius. 

Scorpius scowled back at him as he lit what had to be the thousandth candle. They dared not use magic lest the blood traitors would find them for the human scum. 

“It is alright, Scorp. They will not find us as long as we finish before dawn,” Phoebe, scion of House Longbottom, said solemnly. Her silent twin sister, Alice, nodded along with a wistful smile. 

Alice only spoke when she was taken by prophecy, unlike Phoebe who was able to both read the signs and interpret them. Both were very much mirrors of their mother, the late Lady Luna Longbottom. 

“Scorpius, it will be okay. It has to be. She has to hear us,” Albus practically whispered, a hint of desperation in his voice. Scorpius sighed and nodded, reaching out after a moment to pull Albus close. 

“The mother is always listening. She has been awaiting her children to call for a very long time,” Phoebe murmured.

Albus gave a tight nod. They had all been there the night Alice spoke the words that had led them here, hiding in the ruins of the last safehaven to fall. 

_ The walls must fall, she must arise  _

_ The Dark Lady, the last light.  _

_ Mother and Destroyer.  _

_ On the last day of winterlight  _

_ Four must call  _

_ With the last of earthen magic might  _

_ Summon the Goddess  _

_ The three in one  _

_ To bring the war’s end  _

_ Destruction she must rend  _

_ With dawn’s bursting light  _

_ The serpent’s hall will burn  _

_ Ancient bones to dust  _

_ Where it first began  _

_ And life tied to life  _

_ Will have a chance again  _

“It’s time,” Phoebe said quietly, drawing them all from their memories. 

Albus and Scorpius embraced, kisses pressed against lips, before separating to different corners. The candle light flickering around them, bones of an ancient creature inside their circle, and four corners to make the call. 

“Hecate, we call you. The South calls with fire,” Phoebe called out as she cut a smooth line across her palm and let the blood drip onto the symbol of the chamber floor. 

“Hecate, we beseech you. The West beseeches with water,” Albus intoned, repeated the blood offering. 

Phoebe opened her mouth to call for Alice as her sister raised her own athame, but snapped her mouth shut when Alice spoke. 

“Hecate, we invite you. The North invites you with earth,” the girl spoke, her voice scratchy from disuse, but not at all without conviction. When her blood hit the floor the entire circle lit up. 

Scorpius swallowed, closing his eyes only briefly, stealing himself with determination. It was too late to turn back now. 

“Hecate, we listen. The East listens with air,” he slid the blade across his palm. It bit into the scar that had been there since youth, even now his upbringing in the wizarding world different from those of his companions. 

The blood joined the ritual. Blood from so many old families, ancient lines, coming together, rushing towards the ancient bones as if being pulled. The wind blew harshly around them, spinning into a cyclone all around, as they stood in the eye. 

Just as the cyclone swirled into a tip at the top, the sun’s early light began to pour through the ruins of the ceiling that had once sheltered the chamber of secrets. 

“I hear the call and I have come to hear the plea,” a rich, booming voice filled the space and Scorpius knew he was not the only one who was barely holding themself upright. 

Looking forward, the last four magical children left to fight the unyielding fear of non-magical civilization laid eyes on the triple goddess herself. Mother to magic, the Dark Lady, Hecate stood before them in all of her beautiful, yet horrific dignity. 

“We ask for peace, Lady Magic, and we ask for help. Our people are nearly gone, only blood traitors and broken remain. Let us save them if possible and if not, let the last of our kind's destruction bring forth a maelstrom of destruction among those who destroyed us,” Albus spoke, the one that’s family had been most favored and most cursed by the fates. 

The deity looked around her, eyes landing on Alice. 

“It has been long since one of my chosen children has listened for my wishes so devotedly to close herself off from her own voice. I have not been so honored since the times of when Delphi stood,” Hecate murmured and tilted her head as the girl simply gave a curtsy in reverence before speaking. 

“I have not told them the price,” she whispered and Hecate nodded in understanding. 

“It was not your burden to present the truth, my child, but mine,” turning again the goddess looked at them all before landing on Albus. 

“My children, my beloved fates, have not always treated your family fairly, but it has always been with just intentions. I will answer you plea, but only if you except the consequences,” she told them, “I will turn back the clock, for you called me in counter, to a time where this genocide could be stopped from occuring. None of you will be born and as things will change, you might also not be born as you are.”

She watched as they silently stared among one another, before Albus hung his head. 

“My Lady, we would see ourselves destroyed for the whole of our kind. We could do nothing else,” he quietly agreed for all of them, for they had started this road together and had vowed to finish it, no matter the price asked. 

The deity nodded and turned to Scorpius when he made a slight noise. 

“Ask your question, son of the line who called me Dea Matrona,” she said. 

Scorpius flushed at the direct attention, “If we are not to travel back, how is the past to change? I believe you mean the time of Voldemort’s second reign to wind the clock, but how will you change the tide?” 

Hecate hummed quietly as she stared at him and Scorpius felt as if she was seeing all the way to his very soul. 

“I will give your knowledge, your truth, your history to the two who will be my heralds. They will restore the might of magic and destroy the future of which you have lived,” she answered finally. 

“Our grandparents,” Phoebe murmured and eyes widened when Hecate gave a nod. 

“They have slept long enough. I will return to the moment the trickster cursed them to slumber and for eleven years they will dream and learn of your last eleven years. I give you one hour to leave the last message they will learn before awakening. Sit and speak, children, while I walk the world I am to destroy, one last time,” Hecate instructed and then vanished from the circle. 

All four looked to one another and finally Phoebe spoke. 

“We should speak of things that happened from our lives. The stories we were told about our parents growing up and what we discovered after,” Phoebe advised, looking at Albus with a sad look. 

He sighed and nodded, “I’ll go first. My name is Albus Severus Malfoy, but I was born a Potter. The son of Harry James Potter and Ginevra Weasley...and a product of line theft....” 

As they all spoke, their clearest recollection of the stories from before they were born, to the betrayals discovered long after they were adults, and the destruction and desolation of war with non-magical human’s. The end of their hour drew near and saw them saying their goodbyes one last time. 

Hecate reappeared and almost immediately a bell began to chime. 

“Twelve chimes of the bell of time to turn the clock to whence it can be fixed,” Hecate murmured and raised her arms. 

The world began to spin with the cyclone itself and all four fell to the ground, huddled together as their own lives began to unravel. Finally, when all was dark and still, four glowing orbs floated in the expanse. 

Hecate walked to them and raised her hands as they tumbled into her grasp. She cupped them close and began to hum a lullaby. 

As an archway appeared, she whispered down, “Sleep well, my chosen children, sleep until it is time to return the way you were always supposed to be.” 

Then with one last look about her, she stepped through the archway and the future fell to dust. 


	2. A Most Unexpected Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Longbottom's awake and begin to take on the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be the only day where two parts are posted at once, but I had it ready and wanted to go ahead. There is not an update schedule, but I'll post as often as possible. Grad school is a bitch, but I'm on break so hopefully more time to right and my muse stays entertained :)

_Chapter One_

_A Most, Unexpected Surprise_

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183137222@N05/50704681286/in/dateposted-public/)

**March 20th, 1991**

Dawn crested over the window sill into room number 12 of the Janus Thickey Ward of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. It was a Wednesday, the ground damp from a slight drizzle of rain, but the temperature was mild and the sun seemed slightly brighter than it had the day before. 

Nothing else would indicate the miracle that was about to occur in relation to the room’s occupants. 

Mediwitch Marigold Meropius, called Mari by the few friends she possessed, had just raised her wand over the first bed's occupant when a hand reached out and grasped her wrist. 

“My son, where is my son?” the witch, Alice Longbottom, Lady of Longbottom Abbey, stared up at Mari with clear, focused brown eyes. 

Mari, ashamed to say later in the day, yelped and jumped back. 

“Lady...Lady Longbottom? You are aware?” she chattered, “I must get the head healer….just stay there...stay there.”

With that she turned and tumbled towards the door, practically running the minute she made it to the hall. 

Alice sighed and looked over to the other bed. Her husband’s eyes were open and his mouth was crinkled in a grin. 

She took in his gaunt appearance and the long, scraggly hair and immediately surmised she probably looked worse. 

“We have much to do,” Frank surmised as he attempted to push himself up in the bed. 

Alice nodded her agreement, already running the list over in her head. 

“First things first, we must secure ourselves away from Dumbledore. He will attempt to stop any hint of his duplicity coming out now,” Frank continued. 

“Then Neville and Harry and…” he had begun to say before snapping his mouth shut. 

Alice was giving him a slightly manic glare, before it smoothed down into her normal calm, placid appearance. 

“Yes dear, but first we must handle the mediwitch and healer and pray she didn’t yell it from the rooftops. Then, I think, a cup of tea would be particularly a way to go while we plan to fix what that fool began,” she mused and pushed herself up. 

She fell back to the pillows and sighed, “Strike that, first we need a fast-acting temporary muscle rejuvenation potion, then the staff, and tea.” 

Frank smiled at his wife, “Of course, dear. Who do you think we should call for? I think there is a memory that Cibley was still with the manor when Neville was growing.”

He ignored the watery look his wife began to have at their son’s name. She nodded her agreement and he called out. 

“Cibley!” 

A house elf appeared almost silently, the pop very quiet indeed, before immediately gasping at what she saw. 

“Master Frank, Mistress Alice! You is awake!” the elf called out, her voice still holding the remnants of being a Russian born elf that had followed Alice when she married Frank to his household. 

“Yes, yes, Cibley, we are awake. Now, we need your help and quite quickly too,” Alice broke in before the elf could begin to become emotional. Cibley immediately straightened up and gave a resolute nod. 

Alice gave the instructions and the elf popped off again, only returning a few seconds later. They had both drained the potions and were pulling themselves out of the bed when the healer and the mediwitch burst into the room. 

Unfortunately, it appeared that the mediwitch had shouted it to the rafters, because what could only be the entirety of the St. Mungo’s staff appeared to be right behind him. 

Alice bit back a curse, “Well, bother. I guess we won’t be getting that tea. Cibley, to Longbottom Abbey, immediately!” 

The house elf looked between Frank and Alice and reached out to touch both their arms. Before the healer could so much take a step forward, they popped away, and landed sharply in the foyer of the ancestral Longbottom home. 

A sharp scream drew their attention left and Alice found herself looking at Frank’s mother. 

“Hello Mother, perhaps you could direct us to Neville before our potion wears out?” Frank said, entirely too much joviality in his voice for the situation.

Augusta Longbottom, battle-axe matriarch of Longbottom, fainted dead away at the bottom of the staircase. 

“Cibley, please fetch a pot of tea, find a healer we can trust and secure their services, and bring Neville to the study,” Alice finally remarked as she stepped over the woman, “And do put Mother Augusta to bed.” 

“Yes, Mistress Alice. I will be going right away,” Cibley said and snapped her fingers. 

Augusta popped away and Cibley with her. 

* * *

  
  
  


Both Frank and Alice looked at one another nervously as the study door came open and Neville stepped hesitantly inside. He shuffled his feet nervously and Alice smiled as softly and encouragingly as she could. 

“Are you really...I mean, you look like...but they said...Grandmother said….” he began slowly, his voice shaking. 

Alice could take it no longer and stepped forward, arms reaching out as she kneeled down and embraced her son. 

“Lady Hecate brought us back, Neville, “ Frank said from behind them. 

Alice looked to the ceiling in exasperation. It seemed her husband was going to head straight into the foray in an odd impression of his mother. Stupid, infuriating, ridiculous Gryffindor's. Why hadn't she fallen in love with a Hufflepuff? They seemed to practice a rather decent restraint of the tongue. 

“Lady Hecate?” Neville whispered from where he pressed his head against his mother. 

Alice felt her heart skip a bit at his hesitation. Surely Augusta had not raised him with any of the coddleswop that had been going around by the end of the war about Hecate being evil. 

“You do not know of our Lady?” Frank asked the question for her and she could hear the tenseness in his voice. For all of his following Dumbledore, the demonification of the Goddess Mother had always been a hard line with the pureblooded light families like the Longbottom’s. It was the same with James and Lily. 

“Grandmother taught me the ritual prayers and thanks, but made me start doing them silently last year. She said I am not supposed to share them with anyone at Hogwarts. She used to not worry as much when she thought I was a squib, but when I got my letter…” Neville drifted off when he felt his mother stiffen. 

Alice pulled back reluctantly and cupped his face. 

“Squib? Neville, you were showing signs of magic from the moment you were born. What is this talk of being a squib?” she inquired softly and watched as Neville looked back at her wide eyed. 

“The boy did not show any signs of magic till that fool brother of mine dangled him out a window and accidentally dropped him last year. Neville bounced down the hill besides the apple trees,” Augusta Longbottom’s voice spoke in her normal harsh tones from the open door. 

Alice stood and pulled Neville with her, watching the woman with narrowed eyes. 

“He did what?” she said softly, but only a fool would mistake her tone for gentle. 

Augusta gave her an approving look. 

“He hasn’t been allowed back to the abbey since. Now, I know you are my son and wife since Cibley brought you here and the wards fled my control the minute Frank’s feet settled on the stone, but what I don’t understand is how. They said the Lestrange's had well destroyed your minds and there was no chance of ever patching it together again,” Augusta spoke coolly as she walked in and situated herself on a settee. 

A tea set popped into place and Alice pulled Neville after her, immediately zeroing in that her favorite china was being used. Cibley must have returned from finding a healer. She could feel the restorative potion wearing off and knew it would not be long before Frank or herself would no longer be able to stand. 

“Right so, mother. I did not even realize they had reverted to me as I haven’t known what it was like without them for so long,” he paused and turned to Alice, “Perhaps Neville should join me in a small walk to the warding matrix. I need to set the war wards before word travels fast enough to bring danger to the doorstep.”

Alice tilted her head and gave a nod to Neville who looked at her for the approval. It made her own magic settle inside her at his easy acceptance. 

“I will speak with your mother on what has happened,” she responded lightly and watched as they walked away. 

She turned and narrowed her gaze at her mother-in-law, “But first, tell me, Augusta, where is Harry Potter? Where is my godson?” 

Augusta regarded her for a moment before seemingly coming to a decision, “Alice, it’s quite horrendous. That old goat has hidden him away in the muggle world. I’ve tried for years to find any hint of a location, but never find him. He even blocked me with the Wizengamot.” 

Alice’s lips curled, “Then the Dark Lady directed us correctly. He has placed Harry Potter with those muggle relatives of Lily. We will need to fetch Sirius sooner than later and use his blood adoption to locate the child if there is not a directive in the will.”

She watched as Augusta paled, “The Dark Lady. The Mother has touched the world again? They say the last time she came among us that Camelot fell to ruins and Avalon’s gates closed. That she brought her wrath upon Arthur’s progeny who allowed the muggles to hunt us for sport when he was born a squib.”

Alice murmured her agreement, “And before that when the Atlantean’s declared themselves gods.” 

“What is happening, Alice? What happened?” Augusta asked after a moment of silence, her voice shaky. 

Alice looked up and met her eyes, “The destruction of us all. Genocide.”

“So it is true, Lord Voldemort will return?” came immediately after. 

Snorting, Alice shook her head, “No, Augusta. We fought on the wrong side. Dumbledore has prepared long to completely decimate the dark side of our civilization and in it he brought down the statute of secrecy. In less than fifty years the muggles will know we exist and soon after they will seek to destroy us all. They will succeed, Augusta, if we do not stop it from happening. Dark core, grey core, light core. It mattered not.”

She smiled as her mother-in-law sat up even straighter and sat down her teacup, “What are we instructed to do?”

Alice wryly chuckled, “Bring Harry here and protect him, gather the dark and recruit the light, resurrect the grey faction, and heal Lord Voldemort from his insanity to save us all.” 

Augusta gaped for only a second before nodding, “Well, if that’s all, we should probably get started...but first, finish your tea.” 

Alice smiled into her cup of tea and nodded along. That’s what she loved most about her mother-in-law. 

Her ability to adapt and have her priorities straight. 

* * *

  
  
  


[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183137222@N05/50704770347/in/dateposted-public/)

With their escape from St. Mungo’s it was no surprise to either Longbottom to read the papers that evening after being settled back into the master suite. It had been eerily like walking into the past. A very dusty past that the house elves were quickly remedying with snaps of their fingers and hand waving. 

The bedroom had been first and for that Alice and Frank both were very grateful. The potion had worn out and they were both set up on the bed among gratuitous amounts of pillows. Neville had fallen asleep while visiting and was between them. 

They kept glancing down and brushing his hair from his forehead as they read the papers. Frank would wince occasionally and Alice knew it had to be because Dumbledore was battering against the wards. He’d also tried to officially request entrance, but Tilby, the head elf, had informed all such people that they were resting at the order of their private healer. 

They would reach out to any and all callers they wished to see in the coming days. 

“We will have to pretend we don’t remember,” Frank mused, “We need as much time as possible to prepare and the boys need time to grow. I don’t think we stop them from going to Hogwarts in the fall.” 

Alice quietly agreed with her husband, as much as it pained her. They both knew the history from their gifted memories of Bellatrix Lestrange and company. It galled her that there were people in Azkaban for something they had not done. 

Oh, she knew that they had done plenty to deserve to be there, but not for what they had been sentenced. 

That thought led to Sirius. They would need to figure a way to retrieve the man without Dumbledore knowing they knew more than they were sharing. It was a conundrum she had not puzzled an answer to. 

“The will, Alice. James and Lily had a will on file with Gringotts. I would bet that Dumbledore managed to have it sealed. They would not have switched the secret keeper without some way of people finding out the truth if something happened. Lily was just as suspicious of Dumbledore as you by the end. They were speaking of leaving Godric's Hollow under the cover of night and just disappearing. Going to one of the unplottable properties left or even the Americas,” Frank mused and Alice knew they’d found the solution. 

“First, we will send a letter to Dumbledore and tell him we must speak with him soon, but that we are healing. Ask if he knows what happened the night we were attacked and play as if we don’t know it is him. Then we will immediately retrieve Harry and visit Gringotts. The goblin’s cannot refuse the reading, because I know we were named over Albus as guardians. Then we summon Amelia Bones. Who would have thought little Amy would become the head of the Auror department? We can also secure testing for potions and curses through the goblin’s. They would be the most neutral source, regardless of how much they charge us,” Alice put the plan together. 

“First, we must heal, my love. The healer has said two weeks of heavy restoratives and balanced food and we should be able to function enough to begin,” Frank broke in before she could continue. 

Alice nodded, “You are correct. We heal and spend time with Neville and then we see about rescuing Harry.”

With that, she clicked off her bedside light with a handwave and immediately fell into a slumber. 

  
  


The two weeks passed faster than they could have imagined, but with a level of anxiety at securing Harry. 

They had been correct in their assumption that Dumbledore would be fool enough to buy into their manipulation. They had received one heavy handed owl that had insinuated that it was best if they just rested for a good, long while. He had not mentioned Harry and Alice could not help but think the man was not bringing the boy up on purpose. 

She straightened the half robe she had chosen to wear, slightly transfigured to what she had been able to discern from the papers of the current fashion. Augusta had been most unhelpful in that regard. The woman still apparently wore the vulture she’d had preserved after her first familiar’s death as a bloody hat. 

He was just as unpleasant to look at dead as he had been alive. 

At least according to Frank. 

“Are you ready, love?” her husband asked from the door and she smiled brightly at him. 

She took in his appearance. They were still both too thin, but were gaining weight quickly. A steady regiment of potions and a dab of cosmetic magic had gone a long way. 

They both resembled more of the people they had been, rather than the half corpses they had become in the eleven years since their death. 

“Mother, father? I’m ready,” Neville called as he came into the room and Alice was even more impressed by the change from the timid boy she had seen on their first day back at the Abbey. 

The thought brought a black mood on her momentarily before she shrugged it off. The healer had been able to discern the block on her son’s magic, but the signature of who had placed it was dissipated. 

The goblin healers would be seeing Neville when they met with the account manager to the Longbottom estates and the Potter estates. Augusta would be going along with their son while they met with Amelia. 

The head auror had easily accepted their owl to meet them at the bank and had agreed to the secrecy charm. It would not hold for long, but it would be enough time for her to arrive and then to open the Potter will. 

If Lily and James had not prepared for there to be a way for Harry to be found, then Amelia would be needed to secure Sirius. He would know more about Lily’s family. Her sister’s married name to begin with. If they had secured a way, then Amelia would hopefully be off to free Sirius and they would be fetching their shared Godson. 

“Alice?” Frank’s voice broke into her thoughts and Alice smiled at him encouragingly. 

“Time to go,” she said and took his arm. Neville and Augusta joined them in the apparition room. 

With a quick nod to her mother-in-law, they vanished away and reappeared at the bottom of the Gringotts steps. 

“Hold onto your grandmother’s hand, please, Neville, and mind your protocols,” Frank instructed and led his family inside. 

“Lord Longbottom, welcome to Gringotts. Please follow me,” a young wizard, probably a Gringotts apprentice met them at the door and led them deeper into the halls of the goblin bank.

Alice felt her eyebrows practically raise into her forehead as they passed the normal meeting rooms and halls. They finally reached an archway and it was with surprise that she felt the magic shifting as they stepped through. 

They’d been transported by goblin magic. She knew that Frank and Augusta probably could not feel the difference, but the Russian branch of Gringotts allowed for international travel for dual citizens that didn’t want to involve ministry permissions. 

It was expensive and out of the realm of possibility for the majority of the wizarding kind, but the Fontescue’s were not only ice cream shop entrepreneurs. They’d shared a long and often envious relationship with the Goblin Nation. They’d even fought alongside them against their own kind many centuries ago. 

“Alice, where are we?” Frank asked quietly as they were led down a foyer that Alice recognized clearly. She read the gobblygook written language somewhat fluently, but even if she had not, she’d recognize the symbol for Vasilisa anywhere. 

“We are at the Gringotts branch in the City of Vasilisa, magical capital of Russia,” Alice quietly informed her party and couldn’t help but laugh at the look on Neville’s face. 

“Do we need to speak Russian?” her son asked, worry evident in his tone. 

Frank snorted, “Do you speak Russian?” 

Neville shook his head. 

“Then I suppose a translation spell will work if necessary,” Augusta said sternly as they finally entered into a brightly lit receiving hall. 

Amelia Bones was already standing in the middle of the room with two men who wore the emblem of the International Confederation of Wizards. They all had rather serious looks of apprehension. 

“Lord and Lady Longbottom, Matriarch Longbottom, may I introduce my companions,” Amelia said as she stepped forward and gestured to the men. 

“This is Senior Officer  Vasya Morozov and his partner, Boris Kovalev, of the Russian division of the ICW.”

The Longbottom’s made their salutations. 

Finally after the introductions, Alice asked, “Amelia, why are we in Russia and why are the ICW here?” 

The auror shared a look with the men, before answering. 

“When I received your letter, I was in a meeting with the British representative from the ICW, Arabella Ivanova. When you requested the secrecy charm, she joined me in the acceptance. Apparently a seer on payroll with the DOM had a prophecy on record that became active the minute you both woke up,” Amelia explained. 

“That is just the least of it, Madame Bones. The circle of Hecate, the oldest known ritual space in Europe, woke up and immediately all the protection wards activated. No one, muggle or magical, can cross the boundary of the land it sits on,” the one called Morozov spoke, “It’s as if it’s waiting for a grand witch or wizard to step in and activate a circle.” 

Frank and Alice shared a slightly panicked look. 

“It is the protocol of the Confederation and all the countries that are members that if any signs or portents of our Lady’s presence among us are seen, then any and all suspect situations are investigated. Since the country of residency was Britain then another country must lead the investigation. Russia was given the privilege since you are of the blood of the motherland,” he continued. 

Alice sighed when Frank looked at her, “My grandmother’s name was Revich, and she was said to be a descendent of Ivan Tsaverich, King of the Magical Russia, around the time that Arthur settled Camelot.” 

“Your family is still well thought of, Alisa Tsarevna, and Russia is happy to help Hecate’s chosen on this path,” Officer Kovalev said staunchly. 

Alice blushed and Frank gave her a teasing grin. There was a reason she had not chosen to use the title that every member of her bloodline had when in Russia. While not officially imperial any longer, they still had a long and prosperous history. It had been a beast of a burden in her early years of school. Even the instructors would defer to her as young as eight. It had made for a difficult learning situation. 

“Perhaps we should take this somewhere to sit down and I believe Neville has an appointment,” Augusta broke through the conversation and Alice sighed in relief as they walked from the room. 

On the other side of the door, a goblin dressed in white and gold waited to take Neville and Augusta. The price had already been bartered in England and after a few moments of goodbye, they were off. 

“Please join us with Belb, the goblin appointed representative that will be joining us,” Morozov said and they all settled into a meeting room with a long marble table with golden legs. 

It was the normal, resplendency that Alice remembered from her youthful travels in and out of the Vasilisa Branch. 

“Is there anything you can tell us, first?” Amelia asked as they sat. 

Frank opened his mouth and Alice gladly leant back to let her husband take over. 

“We have been commanded by the Dark Lady to make sure that the magical world is protected from the muggles. There is a dark age coming, a dark age that will see us destroyed if we continue to allow our civilization to be eroded from the inside out,” he said bluntly. 

Amelia’s eyebrows practically rose into her hairline, “Are you telling me that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was right and muggleborn's should be eradicated?” 

Frank shook his head, “Lord Voldemort did not always order muggleborn executions or rally purebloods around the rhetoric of dirty blood destroying the wizarding world. He delved too far into soul magic and destroyed his sanity while breaking apart his soul into halves each time. In the beginning he spokes of separation, early protection for the newly magical lines, and more measures to make sure the statute of secrecy would never fall.” 

“Horcruxes, the dark lord created horcruxes? That would explain the Lady’s presence being diminished in the past decades. Thomas Marvolo Riddle was meant to be chosen much like Arthur was to bring a new tiding of prosperity to magic,” a goblin said from the doorway. 

“Greetings Master Goblin,” Alice said solemnly as he quickly sat himself at the head, “What do you mean diminished?” 

“As you well know, ritual magic has an intrinsic connection to our Lady. For the last couple decades her touch has been diminished and many of our normal rituals have begun to fail. The nation has almost quit using them completely, now, only using less power fueled magic to continue our work. What does our Dark Lady command?” the goblin asked with further adieu.

Frank and Alice shared a look before glancing at the ICW officers and Amelia. 

“The other wizarding kind will not say anything. Upon entering this branch they were required to take the oath of silence. They are, now, for all purposes servants to the Dark Lady above all,” the goblin imparted the information as he pulled quill and parchment from his pockets, “They will not be able to discriminate against dark, grey, or light magical affinity.”

Frank held her hand as he began the story one last time. Alice could feel the finality of it. This was the beginning of the war, but the end of their first battle. 

  
  
  


* * *

The reading of the will was both subduing, but hopeful. 

Amelia Bones had left with three more representatives of the ICW. One to join her in beginning the long process of freeing Sirius Black and two to hand deliver the missive from the confederation removing Dumbledore as the Supreme Mugwump. The reasons were cited as long, distinguished service as recognized, but an old statute would not allow for multiple positions. 

He would never give up Hogwarts or the Chief Warlock position, so Frank and Alice felt hopeful that the removal from the ICW would stick. 

The will had also left a breadcrumb for securing Harry. There was no fidelius charm upon the home that Dumbledore had placed the boy and Lily had truly distrusted the man by the very end. She’d left an address and all the personal, relevant information necessary to secure her son. The goblins were kind enough to hold her letter of notice that she was taking custody of her godson immediately until they were well on the way home with him. 

While Alice and Frank were pureblood, the Fontescue family had a presence in the muggle world, having not disowned the few squibs born to their line. Magic inheritance did go a little wonky in their family, occasionally producing a hedge witch or non-magical, but several generations a new witch or wizard would be born to the line. 

Almost always stronger and purer in their craft. 

Using the knowledge she had of the muggle world, they transfigured their clothes as close as possible to replicas reviewed from muggle publications. A car was procured through Gringotts and off they went to Privet Drive. 

Alice watched amused as Frank watched everything as they passed by. Muggleborn supporters or not, the Longbottom's were most distanced from muggle living. 

The car pulled up to the house and Alice noticed with a touch of distaste at the cookie cutter design’s up and down the neighborhood. 

Number 4, Privet Drive was just as unimpressive. A perfectly manicured lawn, with window box flowers, and trimmed hedges adorned the front. There was nothing to indicate a child’s presence, nevertheless the two children she knew to be living in the home. 

She took a deep breath and organized her mind, shoving all the anger and ill intent into a box. She hoped the fledgling Godmother bond she had developed with Harry when he was born was still active, but there would be no way to tell until she touched him again. 

The door slowly opened and Alice couldn’t help the immediate rush of emotion at seeing her young godson. She supposed people would say he resembled James, mainly because of his son’s inheritance of his ridiculous hair. The shade was a slight, bit darker though, his facial shape more slender and pointed, and his eyes were the same shade as Lily’s. 

In fact it was the only attribute of Lily’s that Alice could find anywhere on the boy. It was odd to her because muggle blood almost always took precedence over the pureblood characteristics. 

“May I help you?” he asked politely. 

“TELL THEM WE DON’T WANT TO BUY ANYTHING AND WE ARE ATHEIST!” a shrill voice came from a room somewhere behind the foyer. 

“Good afternoon Harry, my name is Alice Longbottom and this is my husband Frank. Your parents were dear friends of ours. May we perhaps speak to your Aunt?” Alice gently asked at the boy’s wide, incredulous stare. 

“My parents?” he said quietly, before turning and calling out, “Aunt Petunia, they wish to speak with you.”

Alice and Frank watched as a tall, spindly, harsh woman came bursting out of the kitchen. Her face had a severe look upon it and she was wiping her hands on a frilly, white apron. 

“I said we…” she trailed off as she took in who was standing at her doorway. She tilted her head as if trying to figure out who they were and where she could have seen them before. 

“Perhaps you remember us from James and Lily’s wedding. My name is Lord Frank Longbottom and this is my wife, Lady Longbottom. We have been ill for quite a long time and have recently recovered. We are here to collect Alice’s godson,” Frank broke in before anything else could be said. 

The woman, Petunia, immediately went ashen and she opened her mouth again. Alice figured it was no doubt to scream at them. 

“Perhaps this conversation would best be inside. Harry may gather his things from the cupboard you muggles shoved him into. I suppose we should be glad he managed to survive you, nevertheless the Dark Lord.” Alice had enough of holding her tongue and they stepped inside. 

The wards welcomed them and Alice sighed as she felt the gentle, loving touch of Lily’s magic. At least that had been honest. Lily must have created a rhunic sequence and embedded it into something that could be moved and placed at a later time. It was blood based, but Harry calling a place home would have been enough to power it. 

She waved her wand and attempted to summon whatever was holding the rhunic sequence. Nothing happened. It must be bound somewhere. It was a problem for later, but she would not be leaving the sweet, gentle press of Lily here. She would find it, harvest it, and put it into a rune necklace for Harry. 

They were somewhat led, somewhat pushed, into a plain sitting room. Harry followed wide eyed. 

“Harry, dear, do gather your things. I know you are confused, but I promise you are leaving with us today. Your aunt will explain upon your return,” Alice prompted the little boy. 

As he walked away, she shared a concerned look with Frank. He was little. Her godson was exceedingly underweight and malnourished. She’d hoped it had been the clothes at first, but his wrists and sunken eyes did not lie. She resisted the urge to pull her wand out and run a quick, basic diagnostic that every mother learned. 

“He cannot go. The old man said we were to keep him and we decided that he would not go to that school. That world got Lily blown up!” Petunia was arguing with Frank when Alice began to pay attention again. 

  
“It most certainly did not. Lily and James kept the world from being blown up. You should get your facts straight and I hope you haven’t been spreading that manure to my Godson’s ears,” Alice snapped, before taking a deep breath to calm herself and continuing. 

The woman muttered something about a car crash and it was only Frank’s gentle press on her wrist that kept her from coming apart and yelling at the muggle. 

“In any case, Albus Dumbledore does not, nor did not, have the authority to place Harry in your custody. Thus why we are here. Now we can do this the easy way or I can have a team come in and obliviate the lot of you. That’s removing the memory of the magical world, in case you didn't know,” Alice finished and saw Harry coming through the door. 

“Right, we should be off. How would you like this handled, Mrs. Dursley. He is after all the last piece of your only sister,” Frank asked as they stood.

Petunia stood with them, her mouth curled tight in a grimace, “Harry, this lady is your godmother. You are going to go live with them now.”

“Really?” Harry asked, his voice quiet, but not timid. 

Alice smiled at him again, “Yes, Harry. You are going to come live with my husband, myself, our son, and my husband’s mother at Longbottom Abbey. It’s a lovely estate and Neville and yourself are one day apart in age. You should have been raised as brothers.” 

His eyes grew wild and he clutched what appeared to be a pillowcase with items inside of it. Alice knew he had nothing, but she so hoped the memory had been wrong. 

“Now, there is just one thing left I need to do. Harry go with your godmother,” Frank instructed as he pulled his wand. Harry dutifully took Alice’s hand and allowed himself to be led outside and into the care with wide eyes. 

Frank turned back to Petunia Dursley, who was watching him with a suspicious gaze. He waved his wand slightly and murmured the incantation. 

“Obliviate,” he turned his wand carefully, while casting a silent  _ legilimens.  _ He moved through the woman’s mind easily, with no defences to speak of, and pulled every bit of information he could glean concerning her meetings with Dumbledore. 

“You allowed the boy to leave to go to a new home, but you remember nothing of who took him,” he ordered and Petunia gave a slight nod. Frank left quickly, not trusting Dumbledore to not be monitoring the house for wand magic, and it was not long before they were driving away. 

“Now, Harry, I know you have many questions, but first, I need you to close your eyes and hold your breath for just one moment. You will feel a slight popping and then you can open them,” Alice instructed, taking his hand. 

Harry did as he was told and waited for the pop. When he opened his eyes, he was astonished to find he was standing and they were no longer in the car. Looking around he realized he did not know where they were. 

“Welcome to Longbottom Abbey, my boy, welcome back to the magical world,” Frank said proudly as he looked around, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

Harry looked up at them, “Magic? Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia always said it wasn’t real.”

“They lied. Your mom, your aunt’s sister, was the first witch born into your family line in recent history. Your father came from a long and proud line of wizards,” Alice said quietly as she led him into the sitting room and seated him down onto a chair. 

“Now, we have a healer who will be here momentarily. Neville, our son, is currently upstairs resting. Frank will take you to meet with the healer for your eleventh year immunizations and a general check up. We are a little early, but it should be fine. After the healer, we will have a spot of lunch and then you can meet Neville,” Alice instructed and reached out to brush the hair from Harry’s eyes. 

Her heart broke as he flinched as her hand came up, “We will never hit you, Harry. I know you don’t have a reason to believe us, but in time you will see. I will also reach out to a clothier and have them send someone. You, sweet boy, are in need of a wizarding wardrobe and a haircut.” 

Harry was wide-eyed as Frank led him out. Alice gave herself over to handle the influx of emotion for a moment and shut her eyes to clear her head. She was not a fan of using occlumency to shut her emotions down, but she was in desperate need of putting them on the correct shelf. She would meditate to retrieve them later and would process them appropriately. 

When she opened her eyes, slightly under an hour later, she found her mother-in-law waiting patiently in front of her. 

“The healer has finished,” the woman said slowly. 

Alice sighed at the undertone she could hear, “And? Is it as bad as we thought?”

Augusta made a huffing noise of agreement, “Malnutrition for at least nine years running. He is 20% below his age weight percentile class. Several broken ribs that have healed incorrectly and overall bruising to 65% of his body. His eyesight is worse than it should be, even with the Potter genes. The healer is recommending we move ahead with fixing the problem entirely. He doesn’t have the same allergy that James had with the potion. He will be on an overall nutrition supplement, bone density corrector, and an overall health potion till he begins Hogwarts. The healer also recommends that he begin a physical therapy regimen and we employ a mind healer. He suggested we reach out to one from Sweden. He left several names.”

She paused before Alice prodded her to continue, “There is a runic sequence etched into the bone on his collar. It alters his appearance. It will need to be vanished peace by peace and regrown.” 

Alice breathed deep again and held firm to her occumelency shielding her emotions. Her hand shook, tea cup with it, as she forced them behind the wall. 

Alice nodded along. Nothing was beyond what she had suspected and there was a part of her that wished she could return to Privet Drive and hex the muggles into the next year. 

It would do no good to dwell on the past at the moment, however, but work on the solution. The muggles would wait. Her godson could not. 

“I trust you to make a selection on the mind healer. Let’s pay and have one come here. Amelia Bones will be relinquishing Sirius to us as well, once his release has been secured and he has undergone basic healing at Gringotts. We received the missive that the Minister has signed the pardon, agreeing to our terms that Harry Potter placement be officially bestowed to House Longbottom until his majority. In return, Sirius nor we will ask for recompense or talk negatively about the ministry in regards to his incarceration. The House of Longbottom will make a short statement about accepting Heir Black into our house till he is well and that we are grateful to the ministry, specifically the minister, for correcting this grave injustice that occurred during another’s tenure,” Alice said as she stood and began to walk the bookshelves surrounding the small room. 

Finding the one she was looking for, she turned it over and leafed through the pages, checking the condition. 

_ An Introduction to the Magical World. A short, missive designed to help introduce muggleborn witches and wizards to wizarding culture and traditions. We only protect our way, by introducing it and not hiding it. By T.M. Riddle, Coven Leader, Order of Walpurgis.  _

“Dumbledore would stroke if he knew that you’d kept these, Auggie,” Alice chuckled as she looked back at Augusta. They’d had the conversation of who Voldemort truly was ages ago. Augusta had immediately dug up the old pamphlets from who knows where. 

“Regardless of who Tom Riddle became, the man was brilliant. He was three years older than me you know. I remember him from my first year, when he was third, and he was amazingly talented. He formed his knight’s some time around fifth year and the pamphlets began soon after. He was also known to help younger years regardless of house and strictly abhorred bullying,” Augusta offered off-handedly. 

“Such a shame,” she continued as she joined Alice by the bookshelf. She ran her fingers across several blank spines before procuring a small, slender brown book. It was obviously handbound, but with neat stitching down the side. 

“Here. This is all of the pamphlet’s released from 1943 to 1955, when the last of the pamphlets was published,” Augusta offered the book which Alice took gratefully. 

She thought about the timeline and the rudimentary notes and information they had begun to map out, “That would be right around the time he killed Hepzibah Smith and the creation of Horcrux three and four. We think this is when his flight of sanity occurred and his Voldemort persona truly stepped into the picture.”

“Then how are you planning to “fix” Voldemort back to Tom Riddle?” Augusta mused as they exited the room together, walking up the stairs and into the family wing. 

“A ritual to Hecate on Mabon. Harry will be sequestered with Neville at Hogwarts. We know that Voldemort’s wraith will be attached to Quirrell. The summoning will bring all parts of Voldemort to the ritual circle, where we will have prepared a body. There is a comatose patient in a muggle hospital in Amsterdam. He is a squib from a long line of pureblood wizards, but he will pass three nights before Mabon. We will leave a golam and secure the body. We will be combining the fragments and the wraith and placing them inside the squib to essentially create a “new” Tom Riddle. The family is suspected of being a lost line of Godric Gryffindor, actually, so in essence Tom will be the Heir of Gryffindor as well as Slytherin. We think the magic of combining his soul fragments will actually render the man looking like his past self as well,” Alice explained. 

“The horcrux in Harry?” Augusta asked quietly as they drew closer to the room. 

Alice hummed as she pondered how to explain, “Will stay in Harry. From what we know from Lady Hecate, the horcrux only harmed Harry due to Voldemort’s insanity. By combining the majority of his soul, the largest piece in the diary, his sanity will return. The horcrux in Harry will effectively keep both of them immortal until our work is done and then they can decide how to proceed.”

They both went quiet as they entered the heir-to heir suite, where they had placed Harry. While he wasn’t officially heir to Neville, they had no way of knowing if Alice would be able to have any more children or when. In any case, any more children they had would not be ready for their own suite for the first ten years of life, settling in the nursery, so the room’s had gone to Harry. While he would not know the difference, eventually he would learn that it meant he was family. 

Plus there was a set of rooms next door that were being given to Sirius. 

They found the boy sitting in his front room and overall wide-eyed and incredulous as Frank explained about Hogwarts. 

“I’ve brought you a pamphlet Harry that will explain a basic introduction of the magical world and culture. We will spend more time over the coming months teaching you all you need to be prepared,” Alice said quietly and handed the paper to the boy. 

He took it graciously with a low thank you. 

“Now, perhaps you would like to meet Neville?” Frank asked and they both laughed as the boy shook his head enthusiastically. 

* * *

  
  


Sirius Black spent most of his time in his dog form. It was the only way the bitter cold, deadness of the dementor’s didn’t seem to affect him. He was sleeping when the sound of the large iron door at the end of the hall creeped open and as quickly as he could he shifted back and retreated to the back of his cell. 

It was never good when a live person came down the most restricted halls of Azkaban. 

He heard footsteps, one set light and three heavy. Strangely enough he didn’t feel the oppressing atmosphere of a dementor guard. They never came down without at least three ready to kiss any who misbehaved. 

To his surprise they stopped in front of his cell and he looked out behind the fringe of his hair to see Amelia Bones. 

It had been years, but he couldn’t mistake that stern gaze of hers for anyone else. 

“Open these gates. Heir Black, do you need assistance to stand and walk?” she asked clearly and Sirius gaped. 

“N..n...o, Madame Bones. I can walk,” he said and stood carefully and began to edge closer to the front. The gate swung open and the other prisoners around him began to yell.

“What’s going Amy?” he asked as he leaned against the wall. 

Amelia looked at him with compassion and Sirius almost felt himself begin to cry with the way she was staring. When was last time he’d seen compassion? Before James and Lily were killed? It had to have been. 

“You have been freed, Sirius, and proven innocent. James and Lily’s will was executed at the request of Lord and Lady Longbottom after they awoke,” she murmured to his amazement. 

The will was never executed? He’d always wondered why his best friends had never made provisions to ensure the world knew he was not the secret keeper. Frank and Alice were okay? 

This time he couldn’t hold it back. His shoulder’s began to shake and he barked out a harsh laugh before beginning to sob. He stilled as he felt an arm come around him and then Amelia Bones, head of the auror department, was hugging him tightly as he sobbed into her shoulder. 

Hours later after he’d been seen by a preliminary healer deep in Gringotts of all places and he’d been dosed with enough rejuvenation potion to at least shower, Sirius found himself in a small room. 

He held his arm up and grimaced at the thinness of his wrist and pallor of his skin. He knew he’d recover. The healer had said so, even going as far to remark on his remarkable mental health for such a duration of exposure to dementors. 

He’d just sat his arm down when a knock occurred on the door. The door opened and he watched cautiously, wishing Amy had agreed to him having a wand. His had been snapped, but he knew there was a spare somewhere in the Black vaults that he astonishingly was still able to access. 

His breath caught as Alice Longbottom slipped inside, wearing luxurious blue robes that seemed to sparkle with starlight. 

She’d always managed to shine. Lily had as well, but Alice had always seemed ethereal. 

Frank entered after her, dressed in a pinstripe suit that seemed made for him. He gave Sirius an amused look at his befuddlement. The man had to have known the effect his wife had on people when he married her. 

She’d been chased after readily at Hogwarts, even being a Slytherin, but once she’d set her mind on Frank, no one else had seemed to exist. 

“Sirius, it is so good to see you,” Alice said as she slipped up and leaned down to kiss his cheek. 

He laughed outright when Frank did the same to his other side and grinned cheekily at him. 

“All this attention is going to my head, Longbottom's, you’d best back up,” he teased, before his voice caught in his throat as he looked at them again.

“Harry...where’s Harry?” he finally dared asked. 

He was not particularly hopeful at the look they shared over his head and when they both sat and Alice took his hand it was to her he looked. 

“Harry is fine, now. He is sequestered at Longbottom Abbey and receiving all the healing necessary,” she began softly and Sirius felt the stirrings of anger. 

He looked at her with blazing eyes, before flatly asked, “Why did our godson need healing?”

Frank sighed and Sirius looked over at him. 

“The old fool Dumbledore put him with Petunia,” Alice remarked and his swiveled back incredulously. 

“He did what!?” he yelled and Alice went about quickly soothing him. 

Sirius went quiet as she began explaining and by the end of Harry’s condition when they collected him, he was ashen. 

“There is more. You are leaving something out,” he bluntly remarked. 

“Yes,” Frank said honestly, “And we will tell you, but not till you are out of Gringotts and safely sequestered behind our war wards.” 

Sirius agreed readily. Obviously what they had to tell him was so important that they felt it necessary and there was currently no one else he trusted besides the two people beside him. 

“We will bring Harry to see you tomorrow, Sirius, but we wanted you to be aware of what he had been through before seeing him. He is coming out of his shell nicely, but I will warn you that he is not a Gryffindor copy of his father. He is very much Lily in many ways,” Alice warned and Sirius nodded his understanding. 

His brother of choice was dead. It would do no good to try and pretend otherwise.

  
  


Harry nervously shifted his feet as Neville moved through the greenhouse. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Neville asked again as he used a spade to dig a sapling from the dirt and move it to the other side of the greenhouse with several that looked just like it. 

“Now stay there. I know you enjoy the sunlight, but too much is bad for you,” he murmured to the plant before tapping the soil down around it. 

Harry made a negative noise, “Your mother is worried enough about one of us leaving the abbey and we are only going by portkey to Gringotts. I don’t want her to worry with both of us gone. Plus, she is supposed to spend the morning with you in the garden.”

Neville brightened at the comment and smiled softly at Harry. 

“I know, but I don’t want you to feel alone, brother,” he said quietly. Harry felt himself flush at the comment. 

“I’ve never felt less alone than since I met you,” he responded before adding a solemn, “brother.”

“Always,” Neville said and both looked up as Frank and Alice entered. 

“Ready, Harry?” Frank asked jovially and Harry nodded, nervous but excited. He was going to meet more family today. 

Alice came up and cupped his cheeks, “You remember what you can’t talk about yet?” 

Harry nodded and answered, “Yes Aunt Alice.” 

“Good boy, we will see you both for dinner when you return. Enjoy yourself Harry,” she said and moved aside to join Neville. 

“The spider sapling not wanting to stay out of the sun again?” Harry heard her ask as he followed Uncle Frank out the door. 

  
  



	3. The Beginning of Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The school year begins and Hecate's influence begins to show. The third in Harry's own inner circle is introduced and Tom is put back together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, some of the major changes start occurring in this chapter. I am about 3,000 words into chapter three and have chapter four mapped out. There might be another chapter this weekend. Depends on how much time I have. 
> 
> My favorite scene so far is potions class ;) I like not-an-asshole Snape when Harry does not do what he expected him to do. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think :) and as always, please no concrit.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183137222@N05/50711557232/in/dateposted-public/)

_ Chapter Two  _

_ The Beginning of Hogwarts _ ****

**September 1st, 1991**

The Longbottom’s apparated directly to King’s Cross Station and slipped through the boundary quietly and easily. Alice and Frank were both particularly happy that they were able to avoid what had appeared to be a Weasley ambush with a simple notice-me-not spell. 

They were leaning against one another and looking fondly upon the train when Molly Weasley came rushing up. 

“Lord and Lady Longbottom, what a long time it has been. FRED, GEORGE! Help your brother,” Molly said and then stopped to scream at the twin boys who were trying to sneak off without her noticing. 

The boys helped the younger onto the train and Frank and Alice shared a look. Both Neville and Harry had been told a portion of the truth, but the one thing that both boys understood was the people they were to not trust. 

“Madame Weasley,” Frank addressed the woman cooly, “I’m afraid we don’t have time to chat. We have a meeting in thirty minutes. We were just here to see our boys off.” 

Molly had a sour look upon her face, “Oh yes. Albus mentioned that you had taken custody of young Harry. I don’t know if I agree with that. The boy shouldn’t have been taken from his family.”

Alice felt the blood rushing to her cheeks and she forced herself to unclench her hand around her wand, “Those people were not his family and Lily would never have wanted Harry to be there in the first place. Abusive, ridiculous muggles raising Harry Potter. Absolutely absurd. I’m sure you’ve seen the release and truth published about Sirius Black. He is in residence at our home for recovery, so Harry has both his godparents.” 

Molly gaped momentarily at the two before making quick excuses and moving away. 

“That will make it back to Dumbledore,” Frank murmured under his breath. 

Alice sighed and cast a silent muffling spell, “It would be illogical and more suspicious if we weren’t angry about the muggle filth. We need to be prepared for some sort of mind attack. It’s also time to bring Sirius home up to speed with everything. We have spent too much time coddling him. He needs to know everything for us to move forward at Mabon.”

“Secrecy spell binding him from speaking the truth until after the deed is done. It will go better for Harry in the future if Sirius knew from the beginning,” Frank offered as they moved further away from the crowds. It was almost time for the train to leave and neither wanted to miss watching it depart. 

“Yes, that would do well, I think. From Harry’s reaction to everything we’ve shared I almost wonder if he was cursed upon entering Hogwarts. He doesn’t seem like the reckless lad that Hecate showed us,” Alice placed her hand in Frank’s as the train pulled away. 

Frank hummed in agreement as he reached out and they vanished. 

* * *

  
  
  


Harry and Neville grinned at one another as the trolley moved from their compartment. They’d hung the rune set that they had been given the moment the woman moved away. The privacy and notice-me-not set in immediately and they watched through the window as people walked up and down the rows. 

They knew from what had been shared with them that the young redhead was likely looking for Harry, specifically, and was named Ron Weasley. He was not to be trusted, ever. 

The same with the bushy haired girl that they knew was called Hermione Granger, a muggleborn witch. 

Then the blond with the pointy nose was also looking for Harry and his name was Draco Malfoy. He was not to be trusted, yet. 

They were to not accept if Ron Weasley or Hermione Granger offered a hand in friendship, but were to accept if Draco Malfoy did. It was all rather confusing, but they’d promised to listen and to trust. 

Neville did because they were his parents and he believed with all his might that Hecate had given them back to him. 

Harry did simply because no one had ever protected him before. Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice were the first adults he’d ever even been given a reason to trust. His godfather, Sirius Black, was also to be trusted, but Harry didn’t know the man yet. 

“What house are you thinking you will be in?” Neville finally asked the question that had been burning inside Harry’s mind for days. 

He’d given it so much thought. He loved to read, especially now that he was allowed to read almost anything and at most times. The only rule was not at the table, during tea time, lessons or after bedtime and if there was something he did not understand he had to ask. Ravenclaw appealed to the side of him that wanted to learn even as his mind told him that it was more the desire to succeed where he always thought to fail. 

The overall loyal and hardworking factor of Hufflepuff also appealed to him. Loyalty was something he was beginning to believe in. 

The last two were the hardest to think about. The bravery and courage of Gryffindor sounded too much like one of the false knights from his Aunt Petunia’s romance novels. The appeal of his parents having been members was the only thing that truly attracted him to the house. It didn’t sound safe, though, and Harry Potter had recently developed a fondness for being safe. 

Slytherin. There was the crux. He was not dumb. He’d read about the Dark Lord and he knew what the common thought process was about the duplicity of Slytherin House. He also knew that it was mostly bologna, thanks to his Godmother who had also been a Slytherin. 

Finally he responded, “Anywhere but Gryffindor really.”

Neville looked at him bemused. He’d already shared his desire to be in Hufflepuff. He wanted to be able to support Harry regardless of what house they ended up in. He figured he’d be able to keep Harry as safe as possible and support his brother in all but blood by being a badger. 

He wasn’t against Gryffindor, but unless the sorting hat went haywire and put Harry there then he also didn’t think it would be conducive to his goals. 

They quieted down and settled in for the long journey. Harry pulled out their potion text while Neville did the same with herbology. They read the majority of the way, both having been encouraged by his parents to get as far ahead in the textbooks prior to starting class. 

It was when they heard the bells that both stood and began to change into their school robes. Harry’s hair had been cut to side swipe over his scar and a growth potion was applied so that it fell in waves just past his shoulders. When the blocks had been removed it also affected his appearance to everyone’s surprise. Instead of his father’s brown, his hair had richened into a dark auburn. It wasn’t exactly the color of Lily Potter’s, Aunt Alice had told him, but a very interesting blend of both of his parents. He pulled the length back and wrapped a piece of leather round at his nape. His facial structure had changed only a little, softening just a bit from the sharp lines his father sported from the pictures he’d been shown. 

He definitely resembled his mother now instead of a carbon copy of his father. 

Aunt Alice had drunk five pots of tea and eaten three entire tins of cookies, according to Tilby the house elf, after the healer explained a set of appearance runes had been placed on his collarbone. They’d had to vanish and grow it back piece by piece. Harry had spent the entire time asleep after being heavily dosed with a medical grade sleeping potion. 

They exited the room after the train had stopped quickly. 

Neither had brought another pet beyond the owl they were sharing. They had named the owl Persnickety after the grey and white bird had pecked at them in the store when they’d tried to look at other owls. 

“F’rst years! Over here! F’rst years!” 

Neville and Harry hurried over to where a very large, hairy man was yelling by boats. Harry swallowed hard, already nervous. He was not a very strong swimmer. 

“It will be okay,” Neville whispered and squeezed Harry’s hand. 

They climbed into a boat and waited patiently. 

“May I join you?” a young female voice asked and they nodded their agreement. Neville reached out a hand and helped the dark haired girl into the boat. She settled easily, a bounce to her hair, and looked up at them with large hazel eyes. She held her hand out in greeting. 

“My name is Daphne, Scion to House Greengrass. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she said quietly. 

Neville and Harry shared a look, both knowing the other was immediately placing the family as pureblood and part of the sacred twenty-eight. She’d probably taken in the quality of their robes and general appearance before deciding to introduce herself. 

“Neville, Heir of House Longbottom,” Neville shook her hand gently and Harry reached out to do the same. 

“Harry, Heir to House Potter,” Harry murmured. 

Her eyes widened and it made Harry happy to know she had not known who he was when she asked to share the boat with them. 

“You have my condolences on the death of your parents,” Daphne said after a moment. 

Harry shared a bewildered look with Neville, “Thank you, Daphne.”

She gave him an understanding smile, “My family is dark aligned, I will not lie. They were followers of the Dark Lord in the very beginning.”

It was a neat way of saying that they had supported the changing regime before it went corrupt. Harry was glad for the differentiation. 

“I think both of my parents, while not supporters of the man before his lapse in sanity, wished no harm to his original ideals. I am personally grey aligned, though I am still learning everything that actually involves. Apparently my mother had a grey core. She was tested before they went into hiding,” he said quietly and shared a solemn look with his boat mates.

Daphne startled at the information and gave him a more considering look. 

They did not have long to sit in the silence before arriving at the shoreline of the lake. Climbing out, Neville helped Daphne and then with a grin offered his hand to Harry. Harry snorted but gamely took it and allowed himself to be hauled out. 

“Oh, it’s Pansy Parkinson. I truly don’t wish to speak with her before the sorting. If I hear one more time that she is going to marry Draco Malfoy and it doesn't matter what contract’s existed in the Greengrass vault I am going to scream. We are eleven,” Daphne said quietly, but fiercely. 

Looking over her head, they each took a side and kept Daphne between them and in a steadily ridiculous conversation. 

“What do you think of the hippogriff feather hats that have become popular among the older women in society?” Neville grinned. 

“And some of the men,” Harry winked at her as the girl who had to be Pansy Parkinson settled in with Draco Malfoy and two rather large boys. 

She blushed at the attention, but did not speak against it. 

“We should be friends. All of us, regardless of where we sort,” Neville said suddenly and both Harry and Daphne enthusiastically agreed. 

They entered through the castle doors and Harry looked around at the entrance as they walked up the steps to another set of great doors. The doors would lead directly into the great hall. 

“I hear that Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts,” the redhead from earlier was saying loudly, “Has anyone seen him? My mother said we were to be great friends. We should have been raised together, you know, if he-who-must-not-be-named had not killed his parents. They were very close with my parents.”

“That’s utter rubbish,” the blond boy, the one they knew was named Draco Malfoy, said from further in front. 

“He is here!” Weasley sneered and Harry rolled his eyes, keeping his head down so the fringe of his hair kept the scar hidden. 

“We all know that, you dolt, he’s the same age as us and everyone and anyone who knows anything can add or subtract,” Pansy shot back to Weasley. 

“Everyone, form a line of two!” a voice with a scottish lilt called out.

“But Professor we were looking for…” Weasley began, but shut his mouth when the woman gave him a look. 

“A brain? Perhaps he was looking for a brain,” Neville whispered next to Harry and Daphne snorted from in front of them. 

Harry ducked his head further down to keep from laughing out loud. A blonde girl sliding next to stand next to Daphne. The girls gave each other a tight smile. 

Harry looked to Neville. 

“Susan Bones,” he mouthed. 

That was the girl Aunt Alice had said was the head of the auror department’s niece. He imagined the dark aligned families would have made their heirs aware of who to be cautious around. He supposed the reverse was true as well. 

It was eerily similar to the breakdown Neville and himself had been given as well. They were not to antagonize Susan Bones in any way, but to be cautious. Only the head auror was aware of the dark lady’s desires. 

The doors slowly opened and they were led inside a great hall that took Harry’s breath away. 

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered. 

Daphne looked back over her shoulder, “It’s enchanted. My older brother said it changes almost every night. Yule is supposed to be utterly blinding with all the white light.”

“Yule? Do you mean Christmas?” the muggleborn girl Harry knew to be Hermione asked from in front of Daphne, her tone quite condescending. 

Harry watched a myriad of emotion crossover Daphne’s face, before she schooled it into cool indifference. 

“She meant Yule. Yule is not Christmas. Most old wizarding families still celebrate the traditional wixen holidays,” Neville shot back and looked taken aback at his comment. 

Harry reached out and squeezed his friend’s hand in commiseration as Daphne broke the cool face and gave him a brilliant smile. 

“Hmmpph,” Granger snorted and turned back around, before muttering, “The headmaster assured my parents that the wizarding world celebrated muggle holidays and were nothing like the heathen’s in mythology.”

Harry’s eyebrows raised and he whispered to Neville, “Is it normal for the headmaster to visit the muggleborn homes?” 

Neville gave a tight negative head shake as the dusty old hat that Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice had described onto a stool. It began to sing and Harry couldn’t help but laugh at the lyrics. 

When he came to the verse about Slytherin all Harry heard was finding real friends and cunning.

“I’ll need to be cunning in the world Aunt Alice described,” he murmured quietly and Neville shot him a look. 

“I’ll see you succeed, Harry, in whatever happens,” Neville responded quietly. 

“Greengrass, Daphne Greengrass!” 

Daphne looked back at Neville and Harry and they gave her an encouraging thumbs up. She walked calmly to the stool and sat. The hat was on her head for only a few seconds, before announcing, 

“Slytherin!”

She slid off and immediately joined the small group at the table. Harry noticed there was barely an applause, which was different from the cheers that had gone to Granger for Gryffindor not a few moments before. 

Neville whispered to Harry, “I hope we end up together, wherever we go, but if not then brothers in magic forever.”

Harry nodded back, “Forever.”

The sorting went along until Neville was walking up. He kept his head high and Harry wondered where his friend would go. 

The hat sat on his head and Harry wondered if Neville was arguing with it, before the hat finally opened his mouth and yelled out the determination. 

“Slytherin!”

If it had been almost quiet when Daphne was sorted then Neville’s sorting could have heard a pin drop afterwards. His godbrother slid off the stool and calmly took the hat off. He calmly walked to the Slytherin table as the trim on his robes turned the brilliant green shade with the Slytherin emblem at his breast. 

Harry gulped as his name was finally called. The hall’s noise picked back up and it seemed like everyone in Gryffindor was making room next to them in anticipation. 

_ Not Gryffindor, Not Gryffindor.  _ He thought to himself as he sat down and the hat was plopped onto his head. 

_ Not Gryffindor, eh? I will admit, Heir Potter, that is not what I anticipated to hear when sitting on your head. Of course, I was also not expecting a Longbottom to ask for Slytherin because he knew that was where his friends were going. It’s not often I have a person whose ambition for the power to protect their friends is strong enough to indicate a Slytherin type of cunning.  _

The hat sounded like an old man, but jovial and sly all at once. 

_ Slytherin, Slytherin, I want to go to Slytherin.  _ Harry practically pleaded. 

_ Hmmm, Slytherin, you say? Well, that will get the old man’s goat, but I could have told you within two seconds of reading you that you didn’t belong in Gryffindor. The House of Snakes might not be in your blood, but it is certainly in your soul. Better be…. _

“Slytherin!” 

Harry smiled in relief and slid off the stool, stopping to hand the hat back to an astonished looking professor. He took off quickly and slid into the space made between Daphne and Neville and across from Draco Malfoy and a girl named Pansy Parkinson. 

“Well, I didn’t expect this,” Daphne said quietly as she looked down at them both, “But I am awfully glad it happened.”

Harry and Neville grinned at her, “Us too,” Neville said jovially. 

The entire room seemed to be watching them, but then Dumbledore was talking and making some ridiculous speech before clapping his hands together. 

Food appeared up and down the table and Harry felt his stomach turn at all of the choices. He was glad to notice that everyone began to slowly take their portions in a much calmer manner than the grabbing and thrusting that appeared to be occurring at the other tables. 

“My name is Draco, Heir of Malfoy,” the blond said and put his hand out to Harry. Harry shook it and repeated his introduction. The boy then did the same to Neville and soon the entirety of the sorted Slytherin first years were introducing themselves. 

Harry noticed that they all seemed to know one another. 

“I did not know that you knew Harry, Daphne?” Pansy said curiously, a slight antagonistic tone to her voice as if she was looking down at Daphne. 

Daphne raised an eyebrow at the blunt questioning and at the way the rest of the group grew quiet. 

“Daphne is a friend to both Harry and I. A fellow sister of Hecate, our lady of magic, and the third to our circle,” Neville said and Harry watched amused as they took that in. Daphne blushed scarlet at the intimate declaration of the three of them choosing to join in ritual magic together. 

“Are you betrothed?” Draco asked incredulously, looking between Neville and Daphne. 

Daphne shook her head, “No. I have no betrothal requests as of yet, a few contracts that could be called into play, to my knowledge. Neville and Harry are just dear friends and it is my honor to share in ritual with them.”

“Will you be seeking to expand your circle?” a third year asked from several seats down and Harry felt that this must be a loaded question. 

He answered for Neville and Daphne when he realized they were looking at him for the direction and realised this was one of those things Aunt Alice had explained about the wixen hierarchy. 

He was considered the most powerful of the three and therefore the lead. 

“Not as of yet, even with three we are well balanced. Eventually we might seek to expand,” he answered, hoping the answer was sufficient. It must have been because everyone went back to eating and only Draco Malfoy was watching him consideringly. 

Dinner finished without aplomb. They were carefully led down the stairs and into the dungeon by a female prefect who introduced herself as Gemma Farley. She asked for quiet and told them to pay attention to the way. 

They reached a bare stretch of wall with the ouroboros etched into it. 

“Salazar is the current password. It will be changed every two weeks and posted on the bulletin board you will find inside the common room. No one is to give out the password or invite students from other houses into the dorms,” Gemma instructed as she led them through. 

Inside they found another prefect and a very tall, pale man. He was watching them seriously and Harry watched as his eyes narrowed at him. He looked to Neville who just shrugged at him. 

“Welcome to Slytherin,” the man said after everyone was inside, “I am Professor Snape, the head of house. I will accept nothing less than your very best behaviour and performance for your six years at Hogwarts. Bullying inside the house will be strictly punished and points or other adverse actions from other sources will be met with even worse punishment. I make myself available the first and third Sunday of every month for meetings. If you need an appointment at any other time, you are to tell a prefect and they will relay the message.”

With that the man swept from the room, stopping momentarily in front of Harry. 

“Sir?” Harry asked, a bit intimidated by the piercing gaze. 

The man seemed to come back to himself and hesitated only momentarily, “I knew your mother as a child, Mr. Potter. I would like to see you this Sunday, promptly at eight.”

Then he was gone with Neville and Harry watching bewildered.

For all their knowledge and planning, Uncle Frank or Aunt Alice had not mentioned this. 

* * *

The first week of classes flew by. Neville immediately was enamored with herbology and thought Professor Sprout was a genius. His influence in the Slytherin house was already apparent as the Professor gave a glowing compliment about how she had not had such an attentive class in such a long time. 

There was no way the Ravenclaws were anything but attentive, so it had to be Slytherin that changed. 

Harry enjoyed transfiguration, even if the professor seemed put out. Draco thought it was because she had expected Harry to be in Gryffindor. 

It wasn’t till potions that he had a chance to shine, however. 

The morning of potions he’d made sure to pull his hair back with a tight tie as the books suggested and when he sat, front row between Daphne and Neville, he put his wand away as the introduction book had said it wasn’t necessary. 

He watched with wide eyes as his head of house swept in, black cloak billowing behind him. He looked around with narrowed eyes and Harry was pleased that his eyes seemed to be skipping around to the students who had their hair down or wands out. 

It was only moments later that Professor Snape gave an impassioned speech about wand waving and the subtle art of potion making. Harry didn’t bother to write anything down yet as he felt his reading of the first ten chapters of the potions text prepared him to know the information. 

“Mr. Potter, what would happen if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” 

Harry sat up at the first question. 

“The draught of the living dead, sir,” Harry quietly answered and the man seemed to think before asking him another question. 

“Where would I find a bezoar?” 

Harry bit his bottom lip and did his best to ignore the waving hand he could see in the corner of his eye, “The stomach of a goat, sir.”

“What is its use?” 

“It can neutralize most potions....,” Harry began, wanting to ask a question, but unclear if it would be respectful. 

The Professor raised an eyebrow, “You have a question?”

“The book didn’t say anything about it being ground down and perhaps mixed with something to act as a vaccination against poison or a precaution when working around venomous animals. Only using it after the person has been imbibed the poison. Does such a thing exist or would the bezoar lose it’s healing qualities too fast for immunity to be possible for a certain timeframe?” Harry asked after a moment. 

The man looked floored, but hummed to himself quietly after a moment. 

“It would not, but there has yet to be a potion perfected for that purpose. I believe the French Potion’s Guild is currently funding research. Very astute observation. Tell me, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?” 

Harry almost laughed out loud. It was a trick question and in one of the last chapters he read. 

“They are the same thing, sir, and also called aconite,” he answered quickly. 

Snape nodded his head then asked, “What is the point of the pompion potion?” 

Neville snorted beside Harry and then obviously felt bad about it as the Professor’s eyes swung to him. 

Harry answered quickly to avoid Neville having to be under that gaze any longer than necessary, “I don’t know, sir. I apologize for not being prepared.”

The Professor hummed, “Mr. Longbottom? The point of the pompion potion?”

Neville took a deep breath and Harry felt Daphne shift and figured she grabbed Neville’s hand in commiseration under the table. 

“Honestly, Professor Snape, I am not sure there is a point unless it is to make fun of someone. The function of the potion is to turn a person’s head into a pumpkin,” Neville answered slowly. 

Professor Snape’s lip tilted in what looked like the beginning of amusement, but he turned back to the entire class. 

“I hope the rest of you are as prepared as Mr. Potter. The pompion potion is learned in chapter eleven of your text. Mr. Potter has obviously prepared himself for this class as has Mr. Longbottom. Fifty points to Slytherin,” the man said and then abruptly his voice depthened, “Well, why are you not writing anything down. Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom cannot do your work for you.”

After that class went smoothly and the entire Slytherin table was excited at lunch. Harry and Neville both flushed under the attention, but Daphne easily diverted the attention by talking for them. 

By Friday night Harry went to bed with a smile on his face. He had friends, a family, and felt he belonged for the first time he could ever remember. 

* * *

  
  


Sirius looked incredulously at Alice and Frank. Then looked over to Augusta Longbottom who surely would not jest over such a thing. 

“You're not joking? This can’t be true...Voldemort...the Dark Lady...Dum....,” he stuttered and grabbed at the glass of firewhiskey the Frank had the foresight to sit in front of him before they had told him. 

He opened his mouth to continue to argue before the sound of bells filled the air and everyone stood quickly as a tall, ethereal lady appeared in front of them all. 

She was translucent, but shook herself and looked around with something like glee. 

“I was not sure I would be able to touch the realm as weakened as I am,” she murmured. 

“Our Lady Mother,” Sirius murmured and bowed deep. 

“My son,” Hecate answered and motioned for him to stand.

She considered him for a moment before reaching out and placing her hand against his heart. A warmth spread through him and Sirius suddenly felt better than he had in years. 

He looked up worried as she seemed to shimmer before becoming more visible again. 

“Fear not, child. My power is growing, but you deserved not to feel the chill of the dementor’s embrace upon your soul for the rest of your life. They speak the truth, Sirius Black, and I implore you to take their words to heart. I bring this direction from your godson’s birth parents themselves from beyond the veil. Tom Riddle must be returned to sanity and stand as my soldier in the world. Harry and Tom are my warriors, my right hand and my left hand, and they are here to herald in a new age of prosperity and bring a resurgence to magic,” she said and Sirius felt the truth all the way to his bones. 

“James...Lily…” he whispered and she smiled at him and touched a finger to his forehead. The sweet, protective magic that Lily always seemed to imbue filled him to the brim and at the edge he felt the sharp, predatory pacing of James. 

“I’ll protect him, I promise,” he whispered to the air as Hecate vanished. 

Alice and Frank surged forward as Sirius began to slip and helped him into the chair. 

“What do we need to do?” he asked hoarsely and listened intently as they began to explain. 

* * *

  
  


Neville and Harry smiled as Daphne joined them in the small classroom they’d found off the third floor. 

Neville placed the same rhunic sequence they had on the train on the door and turned back to smile at his comrades. 

“Happy Harvest,” he said as he joined them. Daphne was finishing drawing out a circle in chalk, Harry etching runes with another piece. 

“Happy Harvest,” the both answered politely. 

Harry looked around and wished again they were able to perform the Mabon Harvest ritual outside as was proper, but they didn’t have a way to anchor the rhunic sequence for privacy. 

Once they were seated, they all put an arm forward to grasp at each other’s wrists. 

“We come to the circle of magic to beseech Hecate, the Dark Lady, mother of magic to hear us. We come not to ask for nothing less than a bountiful harvest in this season of thanks. In return we offer then which was precious in its infancy,” Harry began and looked to Daphne first. 

She pulled a dark brown lock of hair from beside her, “I ask blessings of bounty for my newborn niece, Pandora Greengrass, firstborn to my brother.” 

She placed the bounty below where their hands were clasped. 

“I ask blessings of bounty for the new saplings in the greenhouses so that my parents may continue to heal with their potency in potions,” Neville murmured and placed a small cut of one his saplings down. 

Harry closed his eyes as a gentle breeze filled the room, even though no windows were present.

“I ask blessings of bounty for those that are broken and afraid so they may know they are not alone and forgotten,” Harry practically whispered and put an old bear in the circle. 

It had been his. Aunt Alice had found it among the items they had secured from the Dursleys after taking him in. 

“Blessings upon those who know not, blessings upon those who deserve, we give thanks for all of your gifts, Mother Goddess,” they all spoke together as the breeze picked up and almost seemed to wrap around them. 

The cutting Neville had offered began to shrink into and form into a dark brown seedling. Once it was complete, Harry realized with a start that it was in the shape of a small bear cub. 

_ Plant me, protect me, and nurture me. I hear your pleas and offer this as great tidings. Care for me as you should care for all magic kinds and I will protect that which you ask.  _

The soft female voice drifted over them and they felt the breeze withdraw until it was just them sitting in the dark. 

Neville hesitantly reached out and picked up the seed. 

“We should plant it here, somewhere in the forest so that no one will disturb it. It can protect the future generations...Daphne’s niece and our children one day that come to Hogwarts,” Neville said reverently. 

Daphne made a noise and both boys looked at her. 

She was shaking slightly but managed to speak, “My grandparents talked about doing the rituals in the early days as...as..knights of Walpurgis. That is the…” she began, but Harry broke in gently. 

“Lord Voldemort’s original circle, before he named them deatheaters. I’ve read all of his pamphlets. He used to be quite brilliant,” Harry offered quietly and watched as Daphne gaped. 

“Merlin...They say that Lady Hecate answered his Mabon Harvest’s and showed her presence to many of the other sabbat rituals. Harry...I...are you...they say he was her right hand upon earth...are…,” Daphne whispered in something like awe. 

Neville and Harry traded a glance, before Harry sighed and reached out and squeezed Daphne’s hand. 

“She spoke to me tonight. Outside of her circle harvest blessings. She...called me her left hand. She said that tonight a great travesty was reversed and Tom Riddle has been restored. Her right and her left hand are now able to bring her blessing’s back to her children,” Harry quietly answered. 

Now Neville was looking at him in shock. Harry looked down at the old bear and reached out to pick it up, before he looked back up with conviction in his eyes. 

“And you are both my inner circle,” he stated, “My knights of Melpomum, she said.”

Neville thought about this for a moment and finally shrugged, looking at Daphne, who appeared bemused and shocked all at once. 

“The two ancient Latin words for apple put together. Traditionally a Mabon fruit,” she offered, before paling again. 

“Are you telling me that Lord Voldemort...the Dark Lord...is back?” she finally asked, tremendously. 

“Yes. Tonight my parents with Sirius Black summoned the Dark Lady and performed a rite that healed and brought back Thomas Marvolo Riddle, who became Voldemort back to life,” Neville admitted, “They told us what Lady Hecate ordered them to do before we left for Hogwarts and performed a ritual to occlude our minds.”

Daphne nodded, “I’ve been learning occlumency since I was a toddler. It’s a family tradition for both sides of my line. I can protect my mind.”

“That’s good, because a lot is going to change according to Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice. The Circle of Hecate woke up and I feel it calling to me. We will need to go there on Litha,” Harry whispered, the names of the sabbats still falling a little clumsily from his tongue regardless of studying practically every waking moment he wasn't in class or with Neville and Daphne.

“Our circle and Tom’s circle will need to be there,” he whispered the realization, feeling the rightness in his words and then looked at the two of them. 

“We need to grow our circle, by three at least to start with. Light, dark, and grey cores. All sides of the trifecta,” Neville said suddenly and then looked around suspiciously as he had no clue where the thought came from, but Daphne was already nodding with him. 

“We best start recruiting then,” she grinned at both of them and reached out impulsively. They all gave one another a hug before beginning to clean up their ritual space and sneak back to the dorms. 

* * *

  
  


Miles away in the apple orchard of Longbottom Abbey, a figure sat up shakily from the stone altar in the middle of a ritual circle. 

Thomas Marvolo Riddle, not a day over sixteen, looked around at the small circle, none immediately recognizable. 

A robe was draped over his body and he shifted to slowly stand. 

“You look as you did so many years ago, only slight differences, but enough to fool anyone who knew you,” one of the witches whispered and he looked over bewildered. 

She was an older woman, but she looked a bit familiar. He met her eyes and he felt his own widen. 

“Auggie Weiss?” he finally asked, his voice sounding much smoother than he felt. 

The old woman snorted, “It’s been Longbottom longer than you got yourself blown up by toddler, but yes. You’ve been gone quite a long time, even longer ago than your fall.”

Tom thought over those words before nodding his head, “Lady Hecate spoke to me, but I do not know the details. Only that I was driven insane and have been brought back by some most unlikely allies.”

“My Lord, perhaps we should adjourn to the abbey. Have some tea and we can speak on what has happened,” a young woman said from behind Auggie. 

He nodded his acquiescence and pulled the robe on and fastened it. It fell down his legs in a flow of black silk. He followed them inside just as the moon reached its height. 

Somewhere, as the breeze fluttered brown and red leaves to the floor, Hecate smiled. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. The Circle Expands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cruel child hurts a member of Harry's circle and we see where Tom is at and learn of future plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've begun the next chapter, but with year end coming my job is crazy pants. Will do my best on this one to get done with the next chapter by next weekend. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think :)

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183137222@N05/50716236838/in/dateposted-public/)

_Chapter Three_

_The Circle Expands_

**October 1st, 1991**

  
  


Autumn turned to winter weather earlier than normal and with it blew in a bitter, cold freeze. The great lake was partially iced over and the professor’s came together to freeze a thick enough layer for many to ice skate. Other students found themselves cuddled into blankets with warming charms and watching fellow students go in turns onto the magical rink. 

Harry and Neville both determined they would rather stay on the land and let Daphne twirl around with Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Pansy had finally given over her claim on the Malfoy heir so early after Harry had bluntly told her to quit bothering Daphne with it. 

They’d watched as Pansy had seemed to fight with herself, but Harry’s core had obviously expanded since the Mabon Harvest. He practically shone with power and the fact of this had not been lost upon the members of their house. Those that knew how to look, that is, as Crabb and Goyle seemed to just follow whatever Draco decided to do. 

Their seed had been planted and obviously magic must be helping it along, because it was already halfway as tall as the surrounding trees. The last time they had gone to water it, several unicorns were resting beneath the golden leaves. 

Oddly enough the tree had full plumage and did not seem as if it would be losing any at all. They had discovered off hand that whenever one was close the other’s could not even see the person. The tree had some sort of privacy protection. It would help with rituals in the future that had to be done outside. 

“Harry, do you think he will be there when we go home?” Neville asked him quietly and Harry turned his head to look at his godbrother. 

He nodded his head, “I know he will. I’m not sure how, but I feel myself being drawn back to the abbey and I think it’s because I am supposed to meet him.” 

Daphne laughter brought them back to watching the ice and it was a good thing they did. Harry and Neville watched in horror as Ron Weasley pulled his wand and yelled out a stunning spell towards Draco. 

Draco flew back and knocked into Daphne. Daphne fell straight back and both boys felt like they could hear the knock of her head against the ice. They could definitely see the red of the blood as it seeped around her. 

“Daphne!” yelled Neville. He and Harry both slipped across the ice as they tried to get to their friend. 

“Cibley!” Neville called out when they began to skid for the fourth time. 

The house elf popped in front of them. 

“Yes Master Nevi…,” Harry cut Cibley off. 

“Get Daphne and snap her to the infirmary,” he ordered without thinking and Cibley snapped away again and reappeared with the girl before vanishing again. 

Draco skated over to them with a glare over his shoulder at Weasley, who was laughing with two other Gryffindors. 

“Where did she go?” Draco asked, out of breath. 

Neville and Harry helped haul him off the ice. 

“Infirmary. If I thought I could get away with it, I would have sent her to Longbottom Abbey instead,” Neville explained as they began to walk towards Hogwarts. 

Pansy and Blaise Zabini joined them. 

“Nott, stay back and watch Goyle and Crabb. Don’t let them do something stupid,” Draco called back and the other boy readily agreed. 

Harry felt something shift as the four boys and Pansy walked towards the castle. It felt like something balanced. He pushed the thought back and concentrated on what was happening. 

“Pansy, can you get in touch with Daphne’s mother or father? I don’t feel comfortable without making sure they are aware. Professor Snape is out of the castle today and I don’t trust Dumbledore to make sure her parents are involved,” Harry said quietly as they turned into the main castle courtyard. 

Pansy looked over in surprise, “I will go to a prefect and get them to let me use the floo to call for the Baron and Baroness.”

She quickly moved away and began to hasten towards the dungeons. Harry was almost sure she began to run as soon as she was away from prior eyes. 

They all trooped up to the infirmary where they were met unfortunately by the Gryffindor head of house. 

“No visitors. Madame Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore are taking care of the girl,” she said sharply. 

Harry’s eyes narrow at her words. 

“Isn’t Madame Pomfrey just a mediwitch? Shouldn’t a healer be called in? I saw how hard she went down and the amount of blood. I’ve had similar injuries when I lived with my mother’s sister and know how hard I struggled to even speak when I wasn’t taken to a doctor,” Harry asked blithely, before offering, “A muggle healer.”

He felt the incredulous stares from behind him. Professor McGonagall seemed taken aback, but didn’t say anything. Harry decided to continue. 

“Plus, surely someone on staff is taking the time to call the Baron and Baroness of House Greengrass. I know that Hogwarts doesn’t bother with minor injuries, but surely this was something of a larger scale.”

The Professor’s eyes narrowed and she gave a brisk nod, whether in agreeance or argument, he was not sure. Draco picked up at this point. 

“And the aurors? Surely they need to be called to address the cruel and callus way that the Weasley boy hurt her,” he sneered. 

Which reminded Harry they did not know what had happened and they should probably remedy this rather quickly. 

“We will leave you to go and return to visit Daphne later,” he finally said and began to heard the group back down the corridor. 

They walked down to the dungeon’s and had just sat in the common room when Pansy and Marcus Flint came out from a door off to the side that led to their head of houses dormitory office. 

“They are on their way. They also summoned the aurors and their personal healer because they were not sure that the old goat would,” Marcus sneered and Harry nodded. 

He waited till the prefect left and Pansy had settled beside Draco. 

“What happened?” he asked bluntly to them both and Zabini. 

Draco sneered, “Weasley asked me what we had done to curse you into Slytherin. I called him a blood traitor and told him that your intelligence to know trash when you see it got you into Slytherin.”

He looked slightly abashed by the end, “Then he tried to stun me and you saw what happened.”

Harry nodded, but Neville took over, oddly enough. 

“You need to practice dueling more and defensive magic. We all probably should. If we are going to spend seven years being cursed at every insult then we need to do something to protect ourselves,” Neville offered. 

Harry watched as everyone nodded along and he wondered at his magic prodding him to offer something he’d been thinking about. Deciding to follow his instincts he looked at everyone in the room. 

Draco, Pansy, Blaise, Neville, and himself with Daphne made six. He took a moment to think about Theodore Nott, but something did not feel quite right there yet. It wasn’t that Theodore was a bad fit or a bad wizard, it just didn’t feel balanced. 

“I would invite the three of you to join my circle on Samhain. We are going to invoke the goddess and do a ritual to ask our ancestor’s protection for the coming year,” he said and watched as the three student’s glanced in surprise at one another. 

“How do you plan to get around Dumbledore finding out?” Blaise asked after a moment. 

Neville and Harry grinned wryly at one another. 

“My parents had a rhunic sequence imbibed prior to starting Hogwarts. We used it on the train to avoid gawkers and on Mabon to keep Dumbledore from realizing we were invoking the Mother Goddess for the Harvest,” Neville offered and couldn’t help but laugh when the three looked at him dumbly. 

Harry barked out a laugh, “Plus we have a place in the forbidden forest around our harvest offering that is completely unseen by those not in the ritual circle.”

“What about Theo? I don’t think Crabb and Goyle are particularly good fits for ritual magic. Apparently Goyle caught his house on fire the last time his parent’s tried to involve him,” Draco asked. 

Neville looked too Harry. 

Harry thought about his words for a moment, “Theo will join our circle if he wishes in the future. It’s not time yet, though. My magic says we will be balanced with the six, but Theo’s opposite for the circle is not here yet.” 

“Not here yet? Your magic is telling you?” Pansy whispered, not missing the undertone of what this meant if Harry’s magic was prodding him for balance on the creation of a circle. 

He was being led to not only stand head of a school circle, but to create a coven. The like hadn’t been done since Lord Voldemort created the Knights of Walpurgis. 

“Yes, the Lady Hecate dips her fingers in the river of time and tells me when and what is time or not. Who is right or who is not for the Knights of Melpomum,” Harry said absently as he thought over what they would need to do to widen a circle. 

He couldn’t wait for Daphne to be back. She was the one with the background for creating the ritual space. Neville had only learned for solitary practice and Harry was on an uphill battle to learn everything he should have been taught since birth. 

He had an odd memory that he sometimes dreamt of, that really couldn’t be his, of an underground ritual circle etched into stone. It was as if it was the basement foundation of a house. It pulsed with golden light and a redheaded woman and man sat with two other men. Harry was sitting in the lap of one of the men who he knew to now be Sirius Black.

They were speaking latin together , but the only words he could really make out was matrem diam and praesidium. 

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he turned his attention back to the group who were murmuring quietly with Neville about their childhood learning about the rituals of the sabbats. 

He leaned back to quietly listen, wishing that Daphne would be okay and praying in his head for Hecate to keep her safe. 

_Fear not, my chosen hand, for as I chose you, you chose her, and she is one of mine._

The cool tones of the presence he had learned to trust whispered in his mind and he sighed softly in relief. 

* * *

Thomas Marvolo Riddle looked on as the goblin stamped an insignia into the paper. He felt a smooth swirling of magic around him and eyes widened as he felt something new prodding at his core. 

He would have to take the time and meditate to figure what exactly had just been bestowed to him at the changing of his name officially. 

“Lord Gaunt, your papers,” the goblin handed him the parchment. He looked down and ran a finger over the name, Tomas Salazar Gaunt, and the family tree that had been created. 

He rubbed over the name Gormlaith. It wasn’t exactly ideal for his new identity to be seeped into an unknown line of another witch of dark renown, but it was better than pretending to be his own son. 

The Slytherin vault and the Gaunt vault were long emptied, the lordship the only thing left. The goblin’s had taken all of the assets in various vaults he’d had as Tom Riddle and created a new vault for his new identity. It was nice to know he had his own things once again. 

He looked down at his newly purchased wand. He’d be particularly happy when he managed to track down the rat, Peter Pettigrew, and get his own back. 

“It was a pleasure as always to do business with the Goblin Nation,” he murmured and gave a slight bow to the account manager who had handled the paperwork. The goblin inclined his head in agreement. 

They were well on their way to having a lucrative relationship with the Goblin’s that he had struggled to secure last time. Not only were they now in service to the Dark Lady, but his new member of the inner circle being from the Fortescue family did wonders. 

If he had not been batshit insane, he would have known to try harder to recruit the woman. 

Tom, as he would now officially be going by, slipped from the room and met back with the Lady Augusta Longbottom. She was officially his guardian according to the Russian Ministry of Magic. That paperwork had come along with his graduation information from Koldovstoretz that Alice had arranged through her family. 

They had gone to the local ice cream shop in Vasilisa and taken to a back room that was fancy enough to make him think they’d been magically moved to another location. Alice had shared that it was a pocket of magic, one step out of time, that they had been taken to. 

An american goblin of all things was there and Alice introduced him as the head of secret affairs department in the Fortescue family business. 

The goblin had slid the paperwork over and Tom had greedily read through it. 

He’d been amazed at the first hand accounts former students had provided of his time with them. The death notices of his parents and first hand accounts from people that knew them. Alice had assured him that the people listed would be able to provide the necessary support if ever questioned. 

They had created an entire alternate history for his new persona. 

“Ready Auggie?” he asked, a grin playing over his lips at the non-impressed tightening in her lips. 

“Alice just arrived. Apparently she will be accompanying you for the rest of the day. An emergency Wizengamot session has been called and Frank would like me to join him for the session,” she said, her lips pursed. 

“Any idea as to what it pertains to?” Tom asked. 

Augusta tilted her head slightly, “I believe that Albus Dumbledore is trying something in regards to the Hogwarts inquiry that Madame Bones began after Daphne Greengrass was attacked by Ronald Weasley last week. Apparently the girl has been healed, but Gareth Greengrass is on the warpath because it was a Slytherin prefect who had the foresight to contact them. Daphne has a fairly large reaction to several common potion ingredients that are used in blood clotting potions. The Baron and Baroness arrived with a personal healer and the aurors only moments before it was to be administered. It could have killed the girl, but Albus Dumbledore claims everything to be an accident.”

“The boy that harmed the Greengrass girl?” Tom said after helping Augusta down the last step of Gringotts. 

A derisive snort from beside them drew their attention to where Alice was waiting.

“Albus gave the boy detention for a week and took ten points. Madame Bones is pushing for charges to be pressed, but the Gryffindor’s that saw the attack say it was provoked against the Malfoy boy and that Daphne was in the way. I believe that they are going to attempt to say that it was unintentional and the stupid boy should be given leeway,” Alice explained as she kissed her mother-in-law’s cheek before the woman hurried away towards the ministry. 

Tom shook his head. The wizarding world had not changed since his demise. Still blaming the dark faction and forgiving the light when they did something wrong. 

“Where are we going, if I may ask, Lord Gaunt?” she quietly murmured as they slipped down into Knockturn alley. 

“Borgin and Burkes. I worked there as a young man and left some things in a private safe. It is one of the services they offer for people who know to ask,” Tom said as they slipped through hags and other creatures hanging about. 

He chuckled as Alice sniffed at the hag who winked at him and offered a good time. Knockturn alley had not changed either. 

It was an odd conundrum Tom found his mind to be. He remembered the time after he created his horcruxes, but it was like a distant dream. He felt the same burn of insanity at the back of his mind, but he’d used occlumency to shield himself from the infection, per se. 

There was also the matter of his emotions being an odd range that he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt before. There was a level of amusement he derived from the people around him, a strange sense of kinship that he had not felt since early days of Hogwarts, and a rather worrisome habit of fearing for his inner circle’s safety. 

There was also the nagging feeling of guilt at having tried to kill an infant, but he pushed it away behind his occlumency shields. It would have to be dealt with when their world was safe. 

He would not fall to the depravity that his fury had brought him to the last time. It would take time to narrow down the follower’s that truly believed in blood purity, but regardless of what the light faction would have everyone believe, the issue had always been the dissolution of rituals and practices. 

It was years of complacency after the statute of secrecy was put in place and their own people’s habit of tossing squibs to the muggles that created a large part of the problem. As more and more squibs intermarried and enough magical ancestry became prevalent, ancient family magic began to reappear. Their society would not be large enough to support itself with the insular habit of marrying on pureblood. 

The recent, as in the last century, of trying to eradicate any of the old ways and appease the muggleborns returning to magical society had created an even larger problem. Families began to hate the idea of intermarrying muggleborns because they would never fully embrace the Dark Mother. 

This had to be rectified. Tom knew this without a shadow of doubt. Hecate herself had told him. 

_Peace, my son. You are in the process of healing what was broken the first time. You are the dark of the moon and soon you will bring your circle to meet with your counterpart. Be at peace and know I am here._

The voice of the mother spoke to him more often than she had in the past. Here in the time between Mabon and Samhain she was strong enough to actively participate. It would be between Yule and Beltane that her presence would drift from them and she would rest. 

That is when the trials would be hardest. When the Mother Goddess could not directly protect them. After Beltane is when they would begin the true battle. 

“Can I help you?” the voice of Borgin, who must be over a hundred by now, drew Tom out of his thoughts. 

“I wish to access my safe,” he said without hesitancy. 

The man tilted his head and peered at him carefully before his eyes widened. 

“Did you inherit this safe?” the man asked, voice wavering. 

Tom held back a snort, “Of a sort. Now, please.”

His voice hardened and Borgin nodded and motioned them back. Tom let Alice go before him and when they were settled in a room he gave the man the passcode. 

He could feel Alice’s inquiring eyes and felt them track Borgin as he came back in with a box. The man sat it down and quickly left the room again. Tom waved a hand at the door and it shut with a silencing spell wrapping around them. 

“Mater inhabitare facit unius moris,” he whispered the password he’d set so many years ago and heard the latch unlock. 

He opened it slowly and lifted the silk covered object out. 

“What is that?” Alice whispered and Tom knew she could feel the magic pouring off of it. 

Tom opened the silk carefully to find the large green leather book still in the condition he’d left it. 

“You’ve heard of the egyptian book of the dead and the book of the living?” he asked quietly as he rubbed his fingers over the spine. 

Alice made a noise of agreement. 

“There were seven such books created when our Dark Lady came together with her brethren to bless our world with magic in the very beginning. The book of the dead and the book of the living were just two of those. This is In Libro Creationis or…,” he veered off as Alice came closer and peered down. 

“The book of creation?” she asked in reverence, “What is it for?”

Tom smiled, “It’s to help us find our own home. It’s to make us all safe. It was always the plan, but I could not do it alone. It takes both the right and left hand of the Lady.” 

* * *

Frank settled into his chair easily with his mother sitting beside him. 

The purple robes were as garish as he remembered and Frank tried to think if he’d ever had any knowledge of the reasoning behind the color. He took in the room slowly and blanched at a familiar woman sitting in the minister’s box. 

Dolores Umbridge appeared to be as much as pain in the ass as she had when he last sat in this seat from the look on the minister’s assistant that was sitting beside her. 

“Order! Order! The Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore residing,” the bailiff yelled out and Frank watched intrigued as the majority of the light witches and wizards stood. He took quick notes of the ones that didn’t bother. 

Another muggle influence then. The chief warlock, while a position of honor, was also one that was supposed to hold no sway over the Wizengamot. It was for all instances and purposes a position of wrangling politicians into staying on topic. 

Albus Dumbledore walked in, a flurry of purple robes with yellow stars and a ridiculous hat, and sat down with a flourish. 

“This session is called to order,” he said without hesitancy. 

Frank watched amused as Lord Malfoy stood immediately. The light in front of his chair lit up magically, giving him the floor. 

“I would like to inquire why we are called to the session in the beginning of October? Our fall meeting is not for another month,” the man demanded before sitting. 

Dumbledore made a show of surprise that the man didn’t disertain why they were being called. 

“Why you’ve all been called of course because of the grievances concerning the Ministry’s unnecessary involvement of the Auror Department at Hogwarts. Everyday that they are there, walking the halls, talking to my teachers, and harassing the students is another day the children are distracted from learning,” Dumbledore said and Frank could easily hear the dishonest tone of incredulity being placed upon the words. 

The room erupted. 

The light side, obviously having been coached, screamed at the outrage of the Ministry placing themselves in Hogwarts and distracting the children. 

The dark side called for blood because of the hurt child. 

Frank looked at her mother and she gave a half shrug. 

They had already decided that regardless of the consequences, it was time to make some waves. 

It would be hard enough for the Longbottom’s to bring the attention of the dark faction to attention, even with their houseguest. It was time for the grey faction to begin to gather their support. 

Frank stood and watched as almost all eyes turned to him and the room quieted. He kept the grin from crossing his face. Apparently being in a coma and miraculously surviving was enough to grant you some consideration. 

“While I agree that this situation certainly needs to be brought to the light, it seems the aurors are just doing their job. If there is a group of children that are acting violently towards another group of children, then it is the ministry's purview to find the cause and investigate,” Frank paused and watched the room’s reaction to the first part before continuing. 

“I am more interested to know how this session was called? The only way to call an emergency session is in time of war...which we are not, or by three representatives of both the Pontiff Party and the Augur Party or by one of the other and three independents,” Frank finished and sat with his own flourish. 

The room erupted into chaos again. 

“ORDER, ORDER!” the bailiff called out and it wasn’t until he banged against the gong that was used to draw attention when the crowd was particularly rowdy that everyone became quiet again. 

It was Gareth Greengrass that stood this time after giving Frank a look of consideration.

“I would call this session closed, Chief Warlock, as it has apparently been improperly opened and no business may be conducted,” the man said staunchly and then sat back down. 

He gave a tight nod to Frank and Frank returned it. 

Their children were to be friends it seemed and Alice had even remarked about how often Neville wrote about Daphne. Harry did too, but Alice was of the opinion it was a different type of writing. Frank didn’t put a whole lot into her words, remarking they were only eleven. Alice had simply smiled and mentioned Volant blood. 

The session ended fairly quickly after the brief in protocol was brought up and Frank escorted his mother back into the main atrium of the ministry in a rush to get away before Dumbledore could corner them. 

“Lord Longbottom?” a small squeaky voice said beside him. 

He turned and looked down to see a rather smartly dressed house elf in a pressed tea towel with the Greengrass emblem on standing there. 

“Yes?” he questioned with a look over his shoulder. 

“I'm being told to give you this,” the elf said and handed him an envelope. 

He thanked her and they made their way to the floo. Once they landed in the floo room of the Abbey, Frank made his way to the office to open the missive. 

He’d just settled in and ran his letter opener under the folded parchment, cleanly breaking the Greengrass seal. 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183137222@N05/50716990211/in/dateposted-public/)

Leaning back and sitting the parchment down, Frank thought over the words. He wondered if the Greengrass girl had a charmed mirror and what she had told Gareth Greengrass or if it was just discerned between owls back and forth. 

He did not think for a second that there was anything other than normal Slytherin tactic with the actual invitation, but he was hesitant to agree without speaking to the Dark Lord. 

He ran a finger over the rhunic sequences added to the letter to ward against invasion or duplication spells. 

The chiming that indicated a member of the household and another had apparated into the receiving room brought him out of his thoughts. Alice and the aforementioned Lord came into the office only a moment later. 

“The Wizengamot session?” Tom said without hesitancy and Frank quickly filled them in. In the end he just handed the letter to the man. 

It was read quickly and Tom leant back and mused, “The Greengrass’s were mine in the very beginning and the end. By the end they had taken a step back, but neither senior or junior sat in my inner circle. I don’t think I even noticed till this moment.” 

Frank watched as a million looks crossed the Lady’s chosen for a moment before settling on acceptance. 

“Write back and tell him that because of certain persons you are not comfortable with removing your wife to Greenbriar Manor. Offer a counter invitation to come to the Abbey on the same day and time. Perhaps it is time to bring the Baron back into my service,” Tom ordered and Frank immediately put pen to parchment to do as he was bid. 

Alice grinned at him from behind Tom and made some vulgar gesture indicating he was something he’d rather not say. 

* * *

Harry turned in his sleep, gripping his pillow. 

In his dream he was underneath a tree very similar to the Harvest Tree, but surrounded by stones that seemed a bit like Stonehenge. He recognized the intricate runes as familiar to the ones Daphne had etched on Mabon. The bright purple moon was unique though. 

“Harry Potter,” a voice spoke and he turned swiftly. 

He froze as he found a man, perhaps around twenty, sitting against a tree branch. He looked oddly familiar, but Harry did not have a clue as to where he would have met him. 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183137222@N05/50716976206/in/dateposted-public/)

“Yes,” he finally said when unsure of how to answer. 

The man gave an odd quirk of his lips. 

“Please sit,” he said and waved his hand to the grass in front of him.

Harry stared cautiously, watching the man at every second. 

“You don’t know who I am,” the man said after a moment, a bit bemused. 

Harry narrowed his eyes. 

“I am Tomas Salazar Gaunt, but I was known as…” the man began.

Harry broke in, “You’re Lord Voldemort.”

Tomas chuckled, “You can call me Tom.” 

“Tom,” Harry said flatly, “Not very dark-lordy.”

Tom started, slightly exasperated, “You are not intimidated at all.”

Harry snorted, “I know we are chosen and I know a little bit about what has to happen, but Hecate told me to build my circle so that’s what I’ve been doing. If we are both chosen, why would I need to be intimidated by you?”

Tom seemed to think about this momentarily before nodding his agreement. 

Harry finally sat and crossed his legs and considered the wizard before him before looking around. 

“Is this the Circle of Hecate? The ritual space we are supposed to join our inner circles on Litha?” he asked after they sat quietly for a moment. 

Tom nodded, “It looks different in the dream. I think we are closer to the divine realm here. She told me when I was younger that their moon was often tinged with purple and the blooms on the tree of life were glowing orbs. She called it the soul tree.”

“It’s beautiful,” Harry said quietly, “Like Hogwarts is.”

Tom laughed at that, “I know the feeling. Hogwarts was the first place I truly ever belonged.” 

Harry nodded in agreement, “The first place I felt safe was Longbottom Abbey, but Hogwarts is the first place I felt a part of.” 

Tom gave him a considerate look, “Frank and Alice mentioned your life before Hogwarts was less than ideal.” 

“My mother’s family was quite disgusting, honestly. No wizarding child should ever grow up around people that hate them,” Harry said, voice almost a whisper. 

Tom hummed understandingly, “Then we should make sure they do not ever again.”

Harry looked up with wide eyes at the easy statement, “Can we?” he asked. 

Tom tilted his head as if deciding something before motioning Harry forward as he stood. 

Harry stood up as well and followed the man. 

“You see these symbols?” Tom asked as they walked among the stones. 

Harry had the feeling that Tom was not done speaking, just asking a rhetorical question. 

“They are symbols of power and each symbol is attached to an element of creation. When called upon in the right order they will open the door to worlds. It’s how Hecate brought us here when humans were just starting to come from their caves. With the right tools we will open a door to a new world, a fresh world, where no sentient being lives and magic runs purely through the flora and fauna of that world,” Tom said quietly. 

“An alternate dimension?” Harry mused in awe and saw Tom trying to figure out how to answer. 

“It’s a muggle thing,” he added quickly and saw Tom nod. 

“We need to get you introduced to more wizarding things so that you don’t have to fall back on unrecognizable terminology,” the man offered wryly. 

Harry could see the sense in that. 

He felt a pull at his navel. A bit like the portkey he’d used with Uncle Frank at one time over the summer. He looked over in surprise at Tom. 

“You’re waking up,” the man offered, “Time flows differently in dreams. We shall speak again, Heir Potter. Perhaps do not mention the plan for the future to any but your inner circle. I have a feeling you’ve already chosen it if the relationship with the Greengrass girl is anything to go by.”

Harry felt himself being pulled away, but quickly looked up and met his one time nemesis’s eyes, “Harry. Call me Harry and Daphne is our third.”

Tom’s eyes softened, “Harry. I’ll see you soon.”

Then Harry felt the swirl and pull and when he opened his eyes, all he saw was the green of his curtains in the dormitory and the light peaking through them. 

  
  


Tom stood in front of the mirror and straightened his collar again. Time had been going by fast since the first night he’d met Harry in his dreams. They had appeared together there every other night since. He assumed the sleep they received was not as restful as when they actually slumbered, thus the break in between meetings. 

Harry had turned into a dutiful student and Tom spent much of the time they had together teaching him about the wizarding culture he had found himself in, ritual magic, and other obscure items as well as the more mundane. Why Hogwarts did not have a basic introduction class he did not know. 

He sneered as he realized he’d just thought a falsehood. He did know. 

Albus Dumbledore. 

The man was a menace and Tom was no closer to knowing his motivations now than he was eleven years ago when he was insane. 

“Grimley,” he called out and the doure house elf he’d chosen to be his attendant among the Longbottom elves appeared. 

The elf looked at him suspiciously, a little old to be an attendant, but Tom had liked the ornery elf from the start. 

“Master Gaunt be calling for old Grimley?” the elf snarked. 

Tom smirked, “Have the Greengrass’s arrived?” 

Grimley nodded, “They be in the parlor with Lord and Lady Longbottom having before dinner cocktails. Is Grimley needing to be announcing the great and terrible Lord Gaunt?” 

Tom did laugh at that, “Perhaps not in those words. A simple introduction with my name and station will do.”

Grimley grunted and followed Tom into the hallway and out of the east wing. It took a little over five minutes to walk the length of the Abbey before arriving at the parlor.

The door was left open slightly and Tom could hear Alice espounging on all the merits Neville had told her of Daphne. The woman was hinting about future endeavors and Tom had to be impressed at the woman’s cunning way of hinting that she knew more than the Greengrass’s did. 

“What about if the Dark Lord should arise again?” he heard Gareth ask bluntly after Alice’s niceties. 

“Now, Grimley,” Tom said and dropped the shields that he maintained in holding his aura back. 

“The Lord Tomas of House Gaunt,” Grimley stated aloud after popping into the room and Tom entered gracefully. 

He couldn’t help but be amused at the way Gareth and his wife, Adora, stood up and then paled. Gareth went to his knee and Adora immediately curtsied. Gareth would be aware with his aura unleashed of his identity and Adora would follow his lead. 

“My Lord,” Gareth whispered and Adora immediately followed with the honorific slipping from her lips. 

“Stand, my friends. There is much to talk about,” Tom ordered and was appeased when they both listened and did as they were bid. He motioned them to sit back down as he took the central chair which had been left empty for him. 

Adora was the first to break her silence, to Tom’s enjoyment. Gareth was still sitting and staring incredulously, hand coming up every few moments to rub at his arm where Tom knew his mark rested, still faded. He would be darkening the mark only when it was time to call his followers in force. He was not quite ready to let the knowledge out yet. 

He first needed to have the parts of his new inner circle complete and perhaps the joining of the coven’s come Litha. He would see. 

“How is this feat possible?” Adora said in awe. 

Tom smiled at her and watched as she blushed and then appeared completely flummoxed. 

“The Dark Lady, our Mother Hecate, once again is walking the world. She awoke Frank and Alice and gave them the quest of returning me to my human form and healing the insanity that plagued me in the later years,” he offered simply. 

The two Greengrass’s nodded as they internalized the information being provided. 

Tom watched as Adora seemed to lose whatever fear had been plaguing her. He realized with a start he knew exactly what that fear was. 

“Harry Potter is my counter in the circle. My Knights of Walpurgis will rise as will his Knights of Melpomum. I believe your own daughter, Daphne, sits at his side as a member of his inner circle. She will be protected by the Lady herself as a chosen of a chosen, as do the Longbottom’s,” Tom offered. 

“Our Daphne? A member of an inner circle to Hecate’s own chosen circle?” Gareth whispered in amazement and Tom was glad to see the word’s made them realize that while they already had pride in their child, that the world would one day see her worth as well. 

“Yes, and that being said, the circles have to be balanced by Litha. Harry has invited the Malfoy Heir, a Parkinson scion, and the Zabini heir to join his circle. They will sit on the outer circle as he only truly accepts Daphne and Neville in his inner circle. Frank and Alice currently sit as my inner circle, but I would have yourself and your wife and my fifth and sixth,” Tom said and watched again with amusement as the Greengrass’s stared incredulously before agreeing with a little more enthusiasm than pureblood etiquette would usually be inclined. 

“Who is the third. The Dowager Longbottom?” Gareth asked after a moment. 

A voice interrupted before Tom could answer, “That would be me.”

Sirius Black swept into the room. He was in much better condition than he had been even a week before. The man bowed to Tom with a quiet honorific, before sitting beside Frank and Alice. He gave a jovial grin to Gareth and Adora. 

By this point the Greengrass’s must have been accustomed to shock, because they only had a moment of discomposure before their faces went placid. 


End file.
